


The Sadie Hawkman's Dance

by Rangto



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkwardness, Bonding, Dark Past, Darkness, Drama & Romance, Dramedy, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, Inner Dialogue, Intrigue, Memories, Revelations, School Dances, Slice of Life, Small Towns, Souls, Spoilers, Tenderness, They ALL Deserve Happiness, set after the game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2019-08-24 08:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 71,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16636343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangto/pseuds/Rangto
Summary: Kris is a troubled teenager.Ever since the Dark World incident, Kris has felt a lingering fear in his heart, one that slowly gnaws at his very core: that his friendship with Susie won't last unless the two return to the Dark World and to the friends they made there. Yet after five days, the two have found no way of returning.Driven by a force he cannot fully explain, Kris decides to ask Susie out the upcoming Sadie Hawkman's Dance, where he believes he will find a way back to that other reality. But as the dance draws ever nearer, the teen begins to realize his true feelings for a certain purple dragon and a close childhood friend, all the while a dark and terrible force seeks to control his body and mind.





	1. THE PROPOSAL

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy folks. It has been a while. Almost 3 months since the last update, during which I said I would be reworking this story.
> 
> Well, after all that time, I'm happy to say that the story is now more or less ready to be publicly shown yet again. Sadly though, for the new to exists, the previous timeline must be eradicated.
> 
> It hasn't been easy, but I hope the results live up to what some of you may have been expecting.
> 
> For those interested, the previously written chapters will be preserved for archival and historical purposes. It will also be a good way to compare what was once, and just how much the new chapters change from the old.
> 
> Here are the links to the old chapters:  
> Chapter 1: https://pastebin.com/hxpUbHiD  
> Chapter 2: https://pastebin.com/RrL3GgKc  
> Chapter 3: https://pastebin.com/5VZt15E0  
> Chapter 4: https://pastebin.com/EAfKtT7m  
> Chapter 5: https://pastebin.com/Bhmt6U44
> 
> Here's hoping there is still an audience after the long wait. Enjoy, and don't be shy to let me know where I went wrong, heh.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kris asks Susie to the Sadie Hawkman's dance.
> 
> She takes it as well as can be expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it folks, the much-awaited(?) redux of "The Sadie Hawkman's Dance."
> 
> I must apologize for the delay. Getting this fixed and up to a better standard took far longer than expected. Hopefully, it lives up to the expectations some of you may have for it.

* * *

* * *

"Kris, my child. Wake up."

There was a voice that pierced the murk. It was soft and gentle, yet stern and direct. 

"Five… more... minutes..." Kris mumbled groggily. He wanted nothing more than to ignore the voice and return to the bliss of sleep. Sleep was about the only place where he could be himself. 

"Kris!" the voice shouted, its previous gentleness all but abandoned. "If you do not wake up, we will be late for school. Again!" That statement was followed by a firm hand rocking the teenager's limp body. 

Kris’ eyes involuntarily sprung open in response to the physical assault, only to meet the covers he had tossed over his head the night prior. He grimaced at the cloth cocoon enveloping his body. His muscles were still sore and stiff, so he didn't want to break the seal over his sleep chamber. He should have known better than letting Susie drag him around Hometown all night looking for the Dark World. 

Toriel, a tall and fluffy caprine monster, crossed her arms when she saw her adopted child ignore her. "You cannot fool me, Kris. I know you are wide awake!" With a swiftness born of experience, she grabbed hold of her son’s bedsheet and pulled it right off, revealing the teenager's body underneath. Instinctively, Kris curled his body into a fetal position.

The goat turned her attention to opening the room’s blinds. “Let us get some light in here while we are at it.” Without wasting another second, she reached out and parted the blinds. 

Kris covered his eyes with his hand the instant he registered natural sunlight. He wanted to let out a hiss and scurry away to the darkest corner of his room. 

“There we go, much better,” Toriel cheerfully announced. 

Kris murmured again and wondered to himself why his room had to face eastwards. He half-considered taping up his window, but his mother would probably throw a huge fit if he did that. 

Toriel shook her head and turned to leave, but as she did, she gave Kris a pat on the head. "Breakfast is waiting for you on the table. I have some things to pack into the van so I will wait outside." 

His eyes now adjusted to the barrage of light outside his window, Kris nodded in reply. Toriel, in turn, beamed again and walked to the door. As she did, her gaze settled on the rusted cage Kris kept in the corner of his bedroom. "You know, we have to find a better place for this cage. It is taking up too much space, and it does not go well with the rest of the room,” she said, turning her eyes back to Kris, who was now sitting at the edge of his bed. 

Kris nodded yet again. He was very thankful that the curtain of hair covering the upper half of his face hid the beads of sweat forming on his brow. 

Toriel’s attention turned back to the cage, her eyes narrowing for a second as she inspected what should have been emptiness. 

Before either could utter another word, Toriel broke eye contact with the cage, her expression cheerful once more. "Okay, I'll leave you to get ready," she said, finally exiting the bedroom. 

Kris let out a sigh of relief. He stretched, then leaped off the bed, his bare feet feeling strange on the carpet in his room. Though it had been strange, he couldn't deny just how freeing sleeping in his undergarments had been. Maybe he would start doing that more often, as he could see it saving him a lot of time. 

Kris’ eyes fell on the symbol emblazoned upon his room carpet. It was an orb between two wings and three triangles beneath it, with the central triangle inverted. Despite seeing it every single day, the glyph had always struck him as out-of-place. He recalled his father once mentioning the emblem being the ‘Dreemurr family crest,’ but that had been said so long ago he questioned whether he had imagined it in the first place. 

There was a faint glow of crimson emanating in the room. Kris' eyes were drawn to its source in the rightmost corner. 

The light pulsed again, this time the source coming from within the rusted cage. Within said cage floated a red heart, which looked nothing like the organ. Instead, it had the shape of a soul as depicted by books on the nature of the arcane and metaphysical. 

Kris had ripped the soul out of his body not long after coming back from the Dark World sometime in the early morning of Tuesday. Since then, all of Wednesday had passed with it doing nothing but floating in place, almost as if it wasn't even a 'living' thing. As proven by Toriel, the soul was invisible to everyone else. He doubted it was his soul, however. He understood enough about the metaphysical to know that a soul was required to have some semblance of sapience. That only brought up the question of just whose soul it could be, and why had it suddenly shown up in his body that Monday morning.

The heart glowed once more, snapping Kris out of his train of thought. Kris, in turn, gave the cage a kick in reply. 

The soul glowed again, this time more vibrantly, its light warm on Kris’ skin. There was more, as somehow, he could feel thoughts that were not his enter his mind, each alien idea working in tandem to form a coherent message for Kris to digest:

Kris knew right away what the message meant, and who was responsible for it.

   

At that message, Kris turned away from the heart. "I don't need you or your 'power,' you damn parasite," he spat back at the heart's 'words.'

 

Kris felt himself pause at the 'words.' He squatted next to the cage, his gaze set on the disembodied heart. He was about to ask it just what it was going on about when the heart sent another message:

The heart repeated, tone much the same as when it had first beamed those thoughts into Kris' mind. 

Then, just as quickly as it had come, the soul's energy faded. Within less than a second, its light dulled, leaving behind nothing but a dark red soul. Had it not been gently bobbing, Kris would have believed it had lost its sapience and was seconds away from shattering. 

Kris stood back up, struggling to understand just what the soul had meant. Or rather, just who the soul was talking about when it had told him to ask ‘her’ to the dance. Who did ‘her’ refer to? And just what ‘dance’ was the soul even referencing? 

Kris wasn't a fan of the invading consciousness he had ripped from his body, but what he couldn't deny was that the soul was somehow linked with the Dark World. If it was telling him to 'go to the dance,' and to ‘ask her to the dance,’ then that probably meant something. He just didn’t know what. 

Kris put all that aside. He had already wasted enough time that morning. Any more, and he was liable to bring down his mother's wrath upon him. He grabbed fresh clothes from his closet and wardrobe and headed for the shower.

 

**-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-**

 

Despite being interrupted by the soul earlier, Kris had somehow made it to school on time. 

After a few minutes of chattering with Susie about schoolwork, the two had gone to class, where Alphys had been pleasantly surprised to see the two formerly tardy teenagers continue being so punctual. Kris had felt a bit proud of that. He wasn’t sure how Susie felt, but he was sure she had to feel some pride as well. 

Aside from Berdly being his usual smug self and Noelle attempting—and failing—to speak to Susie and Kris, the first few school hours went by uneventfully. It left Kris with a lot of time to think back on everything that had happened up to that point. 

As the gears in Kris' mind began to turn, the first thing to pop into his head was what he had dubbed the ‘Dark World Incident.’ He recalled how he and Susie had spent a full day wandering through that other land, one that was as far apart from theirs as the rest of the world seemed to be from Hometown. Despite the craziness of that different world and its inhabitants, the two of them had promised to return. 

Going back, however, had proven difficult. The two had searched all of Tuesday and Wednesday but found no other entry. Kris still had the sore muscles to prove just how frantically they had looked. 

Kris, in particular, felt a desperate desire to return. The trek had changed him so much in such a short time. Before his Dark World adventure, he had been the town’s resident ‘quiet freak.’ It hadn’t always been that way, but he couldn’t deny just how little he had socialized before Ralsei, and Lancer had come along. 

More importantly, Kris got to befriend Susie, who before Monday, he had only known as his dreaded bully; a mean, aloof, and violent dragon that took no bull from anyone. During their adventure, he learned just how fantastic she could be. All she needed was someone to look past her rough exterior. If it hadn’t been for their life-altering journey, they would have never become such good friends.

At that thought, Kris felt a pang in his chest as much darker thoughts formed in his mind. If the Dark World never again made itself known, what else was there to keep their newfound friendship going? What if they grew apart until they couldn’t even bear to look at each other just as his own parents had, or if she had to leave town just as Asriel had? The idea of losing Susie's friendship terrified him. He had already lost too much; the pain of losing someone else already felt like a knife’s edge pressing against his heart.

No, Kris wouldn’t—couldn’t—let that come to pass. Unlike Asriel or his parents, he had a chance to prevent this loss. He sure as hell was not going to stand idly by. 

Kris almost didn't hear the bell ring. It took Susie pushing on his shoulder to snap him back to reality. "You okay dude?" she asked him, after making sure everyone else had already left the room. 

The human teen nodded. 

Susie’s lips curled upwards as she chuckled. "Good. I was about to smack some sense into you! C'mon, it's lunchtime,” she said, picking up her school bag and making for the door. 

Kris followed Susie out of the classroom. As he did, his mind drifted back to the same thoughts from earlier. Sure, he had Susie's friendship now, but if things didn't change, how long would he keep it? 

"Alright dude, I'm going to go see if I can raid the cafeteria for some grub. I heard it’s Sloopy Joe day. I'll meet you back in class." 

"Hey, Susie... would it be alright... if I joined you?" Kris falteringly asked. 

Susie stopped in her tracks. "Uhhh..." she started, her eyes not quite meeting Kris'. "Normally, I'd say ‘yes’... but we are at school, so—" She paused, her eyes set on something just behind Kris' field of view. "Sorry about this, dude," she whispered, changing her posture and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "And that's why quiet people like you REALLY piss me off!" she roared, her previously serene face changing to one of feigned rage. 

Susie turned her gaze on the two students that had caused her to shift her personality. “And WHAT the hell are you two looking at!?" 

Noelle and Berdly, who had been walking casually down the hall, halted in their tracks, the abruptness almost causing them to trip over each other. 

Berdly, the blue ‘mockingbird’ of Hometown, was the first to speak. "Hey, I am not a part of this ritual of yours,” he whined, his expression and tone devoid of its usual smugness. “I am just passing through and care nothing about this whole affair between you and Kris.” He adjusted his glasses and set his sight on Kris. “But if you ask me, Kris probably earned... whatever it is you are doing to him. I mean, he is the town freak after all!" he commented, barely able to stifle a laugh. 

Those words earned a death glare from Susie, whose free hand had transformed into a white-knuckled fist. “Care to run that by me again?” she asked through clenched teeth. 

Berdly gulped. He opened his beak to speak, but no words came out, and he instead turned around and walked back in the same direction he had come. 

Susie scoffed. “Typical,” she muttered before turning her full attention to the other student, Hometown’s perfect daughter, Noelle. “And what about you?” she asked nonchalantly. “What do you want?” 

Noelle placed her hands behind her back as if to hide something from Susie’s sight. "Oh! Ummm... Hi, Susie! Uh... H-how are you d-doing?" she meekly asked. 

Susie kept her annoyed face but raised an eyebrow in reply. "If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a little busy," she replied, her eyes turning to the human teen still in her grasp. 

Kris gave Noelle a wave. Noelle, in turn, awkwardly waved back at him, her eyes traveling between Kris and Susie, her expression a mixture of confusion and what almost looked like envy. 

"Now then, did you want something, or were you just passing by like that other idiot?" Susie asked, a mischievous grin forming on her lips. 

Noelle's face turned a little red at the question. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but she instead turned around and looked at the paper in her hands, her body quivering from what most would have believed to be fear. 

"Hey, you still there!?” Susie asked, snapping the fingers of her free hand. 

Noelle glanced back just enough to catch a glimpse of Susie's eyes. Upon facing those eyes, Noelle’s entire body became crimsoned. "SosorrytobotheryoupleaseforgivemeIgottagonowbye!" she spewed, the paper in her hand falling to the floor as she practically sprinted in the opposite direction, turning down the nearest hall and vanishing from sight before another word could be uttered. 

Both Susie and Kris gazed at each other, not quite sure as to what had just happened. During that whole time, Susie hadn't let go of Kris, who was still suspended in the air by the collar of his shirt. 

A part of him was more than used to it. But where Kris had once felt fear, he now couldn't help but feel awe at the form with which Susie held him aloft; the finesse being displayed by her grab—tight enough to fool anyone seeing, yet gentle enough that he didn't even feel the hand gripping his shirt. It made his stomach skip with butterflies. 

At last, Susie snapped back to the present. She noted how she still had Kris grabbed by the collar of his shirt. Without a word, she set him down, even going so far as to adjust his shirt. "Sorry about that dude. I'm just..." She glanced away from Kris, the coloration on her cheeks darkening. "Nah. Nevermind," she said, her expression once again changing as a wide grin formed on her lips. "Thanks for the lunch offer, but I think I'll fly solo today. See you back in class..." she said as she shoved her hands in her pockets and began down the hall to the cafeteria at a sluggish pace. 

Kris raised a hand, words forming on his lips, but he stopped in his tracks. As he lowered his hand, he could feel another sting on his chest. He turned around and planned to head back to the classroom, his appetite now gone, but as he took a step forward, eyes on the floor, he noticed something lying there. It was a flyer, somewhat crumpled but still very much readable. He picked it up, immediately recalled how Noelle had been the one carrying the flyer before she had taken off. 

The teen gave the paper a read over:

The instant Kris was done, he recalled the heart's words that morning. Even having shifted his thoughts away to other matters by force hadn't made him forget those words: 

“Go to the Dance and ask her to the dance.” 

As Kris gave the flyer another look, he couldn't help but feel an eerie sense of predestination. He could feel newfound determination growing in him. This could be his chance. Otherwise, why would the invading soul bring it up? 

Kris could feel his cheeks burning at the thought. It would prove to be challenging, but destiny was staring him in the face. He would have to be an absolute idiot to ignore it.

With a nod of self-reassurance, the human turned back in the direction Susie had gone. Without any further hesitation, he took off running after her.

 

**-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-**

 

"Will you go to the Sadie Hawkman's dance with me?" 

Kris had managed to catch up to Susie right before she had entered the crowded cafeteria. After catching his breath, he posed his question to the dragon, beating her to whatever she had planned to say first. 

Susie, being more or less a tough-as-nails girl, had not done anything that could be considered truly ‘ladylike’ since the time she had been in elementary school. She was more of the ‘vandalize and cause trouble’ camp, truth be told. “Uhhhhh…” she started, her usual train of thought mangled not just by the suddenness of the question, but also by the conflicting emotions running through her. “I mean… You—you really asking me this? Are… are you GOD DAMNED JOKING!?” she hissed through clenched fangs.

Kris, seeming as if he was preparing to take a knock, took a deep breath. "Will you go to the dance with me!?" he asked again, this time more resolutely.

Susie felt her cheeks get hot. Kris’s tone, his determination, his growing confidence… she had never dealt with anything like it. It wasn't like him to act so boldly. She was still getting used to the idea that the two were now good friends. She even found it surreal. For him to be taking this step this early...

The teenage dragon leaned against the hallway wall and crossed her arms, her mouth rising into a sneer out of pure habit. “Who put you up to this?” She asked, eyes not quite meeting Kris’. “Was it Ms. Alphys? Noelle?” Her sneer grew wider as the word formed on her lips, “...Berdly?” she spat, almost as if the name was venomous.

Kris only shook his head in reply. 

Susie’s eyes hardened. She stood back to her full height, towering over her human companion by at least a full head length. “Someone else in town threatening you into this?” she asked, one of her hands already clenching into a white-knuckled fist. “Because I swear, if someone’s messing with you, I’m going to f—”

Before Susie could finish her words, Kris put one of his hands on her arm, instantly shutting her up. With a shake of his head, he looked up at and into her eyes; eyes that were still not quite meeting his. 

"I know this is going to sound insane,” Kris started in as relaxed a tone as he could marshal, “but I think something's supposed to happen at the dance. Half the town's going to be there, so the chances are pretty high." He paused for a second, his own face starting to become warm. "You and I... well… I thought... maybe this... this is where the next entrance to the Dark World could show up!" Kris said, waving the flyer near Susie's face. "Better than chasing vague ideas, right?"  _Why did I lie about the motive!?_ Kris furiously thought to himself.  _Am I really that afraid of rejection!?_

There was a minute of silence. Susie bit her bottom lip, her mind racing at a hundred miles per hour. Kris was serious about it. The question that buzzed in her mind was why? What had possessed him to want to try the obviously disastrous idea?

Susie sighed. A part of her couldn’t deny the desire to give in to Kris’ proposition.  _After all, he isn’t exactly bad looking, and he certainly can take care of himself. I’d be a filthy liar to deny that I actually find him somewhat… attractive…_ Her eyes widened at that last thought. Did Kris see something in her that he didn’t see in anyone else? The very idea of that made her heart beat a few times quicker. 

Susie swallowed a lump in her throat and opened her mouth to speak. Her intended words were… less than ideal. 

“Kris, you GODDAMNED FREAK! You… actually... want to ask me out!?” She started laughing so loud, that a few of the other students passing by decided to give the pair a very wide berth. “The human wants to have a good time with the big scary dragon of Hometown!?” She put a hand on her face, slowly taking deep breaths to keep her giggles in check.

Kris’ expression remained as stoic as ever, but he took a single step back.  _Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…_ he thought to himself.

Susie grabbed Kris by the shoulder, locking him in place. “Well, since you are asking SO NICELY, it wouldn’t exactly be ‘polite’ if I refused your invitation, now would it?” She grinned, her sharp teeth glistening in the fluorescent light of the hallway. “Tell you what, let me give it some good thinking! Who knows, maybe I’ll decide to humor you a bit,” she said half-sarcastically.

Kris, for just a second, looked a little deflated.

Susie rolled her eyes in response. “Look, this is the first time something like this has happened. I can’t just jump into it without first thinking about how this is going to go. I-I mean, I gotta have some kind of battle plan, right?” She could feel her cheeks burning as she finished her words.

"Susie, it's a dance, not a battle," Kris said matter-of-factly.

Susie smirked. “Hey, you’ll be surprised how easy a dance can turn into a brawl. Especially if I’m around!” she boasted, her toothy grin only growing wider. “I expect you also to be battle ready. The last thing I need is a partner who’s going to slow me down!” 

"You know, I actually look forward to that happening," Kris said, a grin forming on his own lips. "Would be boring otherwise."

Susie let go of Kris, picked up her school bag and turned to leave. But before she did, she stopped in her tracks. “Hey, dork,” she started, her head turning enough to allow one of her normally shrouded eyes to gaze directly into Kris’ own. “I’ll give you my answer after school. Don’t go getting yourself into any bullshit until then. 

With one final exhale, Susie started down the hall, her full strides putting her some distance before the words could fully register in Kris’ mind.

For what it was worth, he too was in a somewhat staggered state. So much so, that it took him a full minute to pick up his own things and leave for his remainder of lunch.

 

**-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-**

 

“Hey, Kris!” Susie shouted, running up to meet the teen right after school had ended. “Got that answer for ya,” she said, grabbing Kris by the shoulder and making direct eye contact. She hesitated for a second, beads of sweat forming on her brow, but with one final inhale, she put on the broadest toothy grin she could manage. 

Officer Undyne would have been proud.

“Y-yes. I’ll go with you to the dance.” 

Susie’s words were almost lost on Kris. For a second, he even wondered if he had imagined them. 

A part of him felt unimaginable happiness. That same part also felt incredible embarrassment at the fact that he was feeling said happiness. To suddenly have it pop into existence made him feel uncanny. 

“N-now, don’t get the wrong idea! I’m going with you only because I agree with the possibility that something could happen,” Susie said, the teenage monster doing her best not to turn a bright red tone. “S-so you better not pull any funny business tomorrow, y-you hear!?” 

Kris, still in disbelief, nodded in agreement. Pissing off his only friend was the very last thing in his mind right now. 

“G-good,” Susie said. “N-now… I, uh… gotta go. Over there. Home. To do things. Important things..." She stood there silently for a second, her eyes shifting between Kris, the school, the crowds of other students passing them by, and the street. After said second had passed, the dragon’s brow wrinkled and her lips curled into a snarl. "Y-you know what I mean!” she half-heartedly yelled, using one of her free hands to push Kris back with just enough force to make it appear as a violent shove to anyone else that may have been looking. 

Kris met Susie's eyes, and despite her facial expression screaming annoyance, her eyes were affectionate, almost apologetic. He caught the hint and decided to take a full fall, landing on his rear, making sure to let out a feigned grunt and to make a face of distress. Unfortunately for the teen, pavement tended to be hard, so the ‘feigned’ aspect wasn’t so feigned after all. 

"S-see you around, freak!" Susie said, her eyes not able to meet Kris', as they were instead fixed on the floor. She wheeled in the opposite direction and walked down the street, her strides so full and fast that she might as well have been sprinting. It wasn't long before she was lost in the crowd of other students, the only sign of her presence being the shocked expressions of other people whenever she happened to walk by them. 

Kris sat on his rear for longer than he should have. He understood the situation but wondered deep down just how long the two of them could keep up the charade. Sometimes, it still felt all too real, even if he knew deep down that she didn't really mean it anymore. 

"Was that... Susie I just saw pushing you?" a soft, almost meek voice, interrupted Kris' train of thought. He looked up and saw Noelle standing next to him. 

The teenage doe, as usual, was well groomed—practically regal. She was alone this time, much to Kris' relief. Knowing Berdly, he was probably already at his job in the library. Noelle’s usually cheerful expression was debased by what looked like a mixture of worry, pity, and... jealousy? He wasn't sure about that last one. 

Kris nonchalantly nodded to Noelle’s question. 

"A-are you... sure?" Noelle asked, her eyes set on Kris, who still remained sitting on the pavement. 

Kris, again, nonchalantly nodded in reply. 

“Here," Noelle said, extending a helping hand. "Can't have you be on the floor all day now."

Kris hesitated. A part of him didn't trust the hand being extended to him. He wanted to slap it aside. Who was Noelle, after all? She was the perfect little princess of Hometown who could do no wrong; she was kind, polite, smart, outgoing, and generally beloved by everyone. She was probably only one rung below Asriel when it came to the ladder of life. 

And Kris was at the dead bottom. 

The human teen felt pain erupt in the back of his mind. He recognized that unconformity all too well... 

That night, three days ago, it had taken hold. It had amplified all his feelings of abandonment, of anger and sadness and hate... told him to do terrible things to those around him to 'balance the books.' It had ripped the invading soul out and made the pie Toriel had cooked Monday evening perish. Only when it had been satisfied had Kris been able to put it back in the box and regain his autonomy, but the cost to his body had been high, and he had been found face first in the remains of the Pie. 

Now, it seemed, it wanted out again. Only this time, it had its sights set not on a pie... but on Noelle… Already, Kris could feel his hands curling into fists, almost as if preparing to launch a surprise punch at the kindhearted reindeer.

 

The voice practically roared, Kris’ mind abuzz with the reverberations of the savage presence, turning nearly all his thoughts into those of pain and instinctual violent desire. 

With a shake of his head, Kris reached out for Noelle's hand and stood back up. As he did, closed his eyes, concentrated intensely, and took a deep breath as he repeated the same words over and over in his mind:

_I will not hurt her_

_You will not hurt her_

_Get out of my head..._

When the teen again opened his eyes, he felt far more at peace. The pain in the back of his head was gone, his hand having uncurled and his wicked intent all but gone. He looked on at Noelle's face, the corner of his lips curling upwards as he allowed her serene aura to envelop him. Somehow, she had always made him feel at ease. Something about her serenity had a way to rub off on others. He both admired and envied her for it. 

"Kris, you've been acting weird all week," Noelle started, her expression growing more concerned by the second. "It's not like you to be this... lively. What's going on?" 

Kris wasn't quite sure himself, in all honesty. So much had happened recently—the Dark World, the invading soul, Susie, and what felt like another him, only far more violent—that it was hard to pin down any one thing that he could even bring up. But if he was having a hard time digesting any of the happenings, what chance did Noelle have of even understanding? No. This was a weight he had to carry alone. 

Kris gave Noelle his most sincere shrug. 

Noelle raised an eyebrow. "Okay... So if everything's alright, why haven't you let go of my hand yet? And why is your grip so tight?" 

Kris shifted his sight down to his right hand. Indeed, just as Noelle had said, he hadn't let go of her hand. If anything, his fingers looked to be tightly wrapped around the reindeer's own, as if holding on for dear life. 

The teen's cheeks went red as he finally let go of his friend, his expression dropping and his eyes shifting straight to the floor. "...Sorry..." he mumbled out just at a barely audible level. 

Noelle sighed. "I've known you long enough to tell when something's really bothering you. I haven't seen you this somber since Asriel left for University. Shouldn't you be happy that he's coming to visit on Saturday?" She blinked a few times, almost as if registering her own tone of voice. Clearing her throat, she put on a warm smile. "I-I mean, it's not my place to talking to you like this, but it's just something I've noticed about you recently! It almost feels as if you've changed into... someone else," she said, her expression remaining as neutral as she could keep it despite the allegation she was making. "And it's not just you. Susie... she's also different somehow." 

At the mention of Susie, Noelle's cheeks turned a shade of pink. "I-I mean, she doesn't seem as mean as I remember! J-just the other day, for the faintest of moments, she actually gave me a smile! I'm not talking about one of her 'i'm going to bite your face off' grins. It was a genuine, honest-to-goodness, warm smile! Almost like she was actually glad to see me!" She let out another sigh. "Of course, she quickly put on another sour face and stormed off, but I could tell she was forcing herself! It just didn't feel... Susie-ish." She shook her head, the smile on her lips changing to one of melancholy. "I just wish I could do it. Work up the nerve and just—" she paused, her eyes going wide as realization struck her full force. 

The doe let out a cough and took a step back, her cheeks outright turning bright red and beads of sweat forming on her brow. "I-I-I-I mean... I-I just wish I could tell her off for being such a bully!" She put on her bravest expression, her hand curling into fists as she seemingly pumped herself up for battle. "Yeah! Walk up to her, shout her name, and tell her what I really think about her brutish, unrefined... roguish, stern, no-nonsense..." Noelle once more paused mid-sentence, her face somehow managing to turn an even darker shade of red. 

"Uh... um... Oh hey! L-look at the time!" Noelle exclaimed, bringing up her phone and staring at the screen without so much as even pressing the 'on' button. "I really wish I could keep this conversation going, but I promised dad I would visit him! So... I'll... uh... go. Now. OkaybyeKrissayhitoSusieformeandalsostaysafeandbehappy!" she babbled out as she picked up her bag and, much like Susie before her, took off sprinting. Unlike earlier with Susie though, the streets were far less crowded, so Kris could see her running all the way down the road until she made a turn northward. Only then did she vanish entirely from sight. 

Kris stood in front of the school all alone once again. As he did, he put a hand on his chest. He could feel something stirring, but he didn't know just what exactly it could be. The only thing that he could be really sure of is that he loathed the feeling. He would do anything to be rid of it.

Kris shook his head to get the thoughts out. When that failed, he resorted to slapping himself in the face once. It worked, as the voice vanished, yet the feelings of rage remained. 

Kris wearily sighed and put a hand over his face. _Maybe I do need that invader soul after all,_  he somberly though to himself. He picked up his belongings and began his trek home. 

Before he went home, however, Kris had a few stops to make. His wallet wouldn’t like the hit it was about to take, but it was a necessary step now that the dance was a go. If he hurried, he might even make it home in time to eat some of his mother’s famous butterscotch pie. He just really hoped she would let him have more than a single slice. He didn't need that other him waking in the middle of the night looking for yet another pie genocide. 

 

* * *

* * *


	2. ANOTHER FRIDAY MORNING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susie, Noelle, and Kris all have a VERY unique Friday morning.

* * *

* * *

The alarm on Susie's old flip phone went off. She reached out, flipped it open, and tapped on the power as she looked on at the black and white display.  
  
It was 6:00 am. Thirty minutes earlier than expected.  
  
Susie rolled right off the side of her futon, the old wooden floor greeting her not one second after she had done so. She stretched and let out a yawn, her joints snapping as they tried to readjust. Sleeping on a mattress would have been preferred, but it was the futon or the floor.  
  
With a grunt, Susie stood up, her feet tasting the old and rugged floor. With a sight, she checked her ‘nightwear’—a spare undershirt and a pair of boxers—for any potential stains or damage gained during the night. The last thing she needed was more damaged clothing, especially with winter rolling in.  
  
Susie turned to inspect the rest of her room. There wasn’t much to see, but years of having little had taught her to protect what she did have.  
  
There were the makeshift futon and an old pink bedsheet that had once been a lovely shade of red sitting in the middle of the room. After the old bed gave up the ghost, her father had scrounged together the thing using additional cloth pieces from the local recycling center and a mixture of memory foam, down, and straw. It had no base and offered no support.  
  
To the rightmost part of her room stood an antique wardrobe that was missing one of its doors and held all of Susie' possessions. The wardrobe was supposed to be a hand-me-down; a keepsake from back when her family had been better off.  
  
To the leftmost, near the window with the old cloudy glass sat an old writing desk with one of its legs made up of bundled together sticks and an old phonebook. It was yet another of her father's makeshift furniture projects.  
  
Right in the middle of the room hung a single incandescent light bulb, its design less following modern standards, and instead closer to something from the 1950s. The electrical cord was just barely held in place by a piece of black electric tape.  
  
Finally, standing all by itself at the far south area, close to the entrance, stood a metal fan. Its aesthetic screamed 'disco,' the blades looking as if they could cause a nasty cut. Its original three-speed dial was broken, as it could now only go to two speeds.  
  
Susie grumbled and walked up to her wardrobe. Hanging within were her trademark ripped jeans and jacket, a plain white t-shirt, and a small tower of folded undergarments that looked less like clothes and more like towels.  
  
Inside the drawers, one could find a couple of other spare clothes that seemed too withered to be used publicly, as well as a drawer full of assorted pens, old toys such as green army monsters (and men), metal jacks, a broken-down LCD electronic handheld game, an MP3 player with a cracked screen and the simplest of earphones, and a white bow that Susie had worn religiously from 1st to 6th grade.  
  
The only other set of clothes in the wardrobe were a barely matching set of formal clothes composed of light gray dress pants, an off-white dress shirt, and an oversized dark gray tuxedo vest, and a small black bowtie.  
  
Susie studied the clothes and felt the corners of her lips rise ever so slightly. It had taken her all afternoon and part of the night, but the trip to the thrift store in the next town over had paid off. Sure, she had to spend almost 15 dollars on bus fare alone, but with Hometown lacking any such store, it wasn't like she had a choice.  
  
"To think I found all this crap for less than twenty dollars! Still had enough to get me some dinner too," Susie thought as she patted her stomach. The feeling of waking up full was something she didn't get to experience as often as she would like.  
  
Of course, she couldn't find a coat that was supposed to accompany the rest of the outfit, but it wasn’t like anyone—including her—would care. She would use her usual jacket to complete the outfit.  
  
As for the fact that it wasn't a dress...  
  
Susie's smile dropped as she turned away from the wardrobe. There had been a point when Susie had worn dresses, but it wasn’t like she had much of an option nowadays. Clothes were expensive, and she had to use whatever she could afford.  
  
_Still, it would have been nice to find a dress cheaply,_  Susie again thought to herself.  _Maybe if this dance works out, I can go to the next big school party in an actual dress! Assuming it's free. No way in hell I'm paying money. Barely have anything left from the—_  She stopped herself before finishing those thoughts. There wasn't a need to dwell on that so early in the morning.  
  
Susie turned right back around and grabbed her usual clothes out of the wardrobe and headed for her bathroom.  
  
In truth, the 'bathroom' was barely that. 'place where you reluctantly went to do your business' came closer in describing it, but it wasn't exactly the smoothest of things to say out loud.  
  
The toilet was ancient, to put it kindly. It looked as if it was made of rusted iron rather than porcelain, with no water tank outside of a black container that looked just about ready to fall apart. The sink was a single water faucet one would see in the backyard attached to a water hose, with only a single valve and no means of adjusting the temperature, and the basin was a round silver steel pan hastily soldered to the water pipe with pieces of rebar and connected to a drain pipe. The mirror in front of the sink was hazy, looking as if it had been made out of a sheet of glass over a polished piece of stainless steel. The 'shower'... there was no shower—only a wooden tub filled with water. There wasn't even a pipe connected to it.  
  
Susie turned on the sink's valve and stuck a small cloth into the sink's drain. Ice water filled the 'basin' as the teen reached for a little yellow towel hanging on a nearby wall. When the basin was half-filled, she tossed the towel in, allowing it to soak. As the cloth absorbed water, she removed her clothes and carefully folded them before putting them on the cleanest corner of the room. Reaching for the now wholly wet towel and a half-full bottle of body wash, the teen began smothering her whole body.  
  
The ritual lasted ten minutes, during which time, the yellow cloth began turning a shade of brown. When finished, Susie turned towards the tub and knelt next to it. With an exhale, she plunged her head in, allowing her hair to soak. After her hair was thoroughly matted, she dapped some body wash on her hands and began to rub her scalp.  
  
The washing continued for five full minutes, a time during which Susie desperately wished she could take an actual shower for once. Sure, her method kept her clean, but it was a far cry from an honest-to-goodness washing. Sadly, beggars couldn't be choosers, and she was very much the 'beggar.'  
  
With the ‘washing’ portion of her morning completed, Susie hurriedly slipped on her trademark clothes and ran a hand over her hair as a means of ‘combing’ her mane. She reached out to the shelf where she had gotten the body-wash, picked up a thoroughly used toothbrush and an almost empty tube of toothpaste, and began to wash her fangs. She brushed for nearly three minutes straight, until she was confident that she had gotten every single spot in her mouth.  
  
Turning on the faucet, Susie spat, rinsed, and spat again. When she was done, she looked up at her reflection. Grinning, she inspecting her teeth and the rest of her face. She wasn't one to be vain about physical appearances, but she at least wanted to look somewhat presentable. Maybe one day, she would save up enough to get her smile whitened. She didn't want to wind up looking like him. For now, the natural light-yellow of her fangs matched with light-yellow of her eyes, so she didn't care much beyond not smelling like a sewer.  
  
When Susie was sure that she had everything she would need on for the day, she headed downstairs. On entering the living room, she was met with yet another mess. Only this one wasn't of her making.  
  
The sofa looked as if it had been dragged out of a landfill, complete with stains of God knew what, a TV set that looked thirty years too old, and a floor full of old cans and strewn about newspapers and other random pieces of stationery.  
  
Susie looked around for the source of the mess, but as it had now become customary, the perpetrator was not present. “Of course he’s not here,” Susie hissed to no one in particular. “Why do I even bother looking for him every morning? He only shows up when it's the least convenient. Some 'legal guardian' he is..."  
  
Ignoring her desire to pick up some of the mayhem, Susie wanders into the kitchen. It's less of a mess, but that isn't saying much, as there are still pots strewn about and old wrappings lying on the countertops. At the sight of those, she grits her teeth. She rushes to the fridge and opens it, only to find it filled with either discarded food wrappings or half-eaten food. She moves to the cupboards, to see them empty as well.  
  
With a sigh of defeat, Susie grabs the least eaten-looking food in the fridge and bites into it, not even bothering chewing. _Looks like I'm going to have to get me a box of chalk later,_  she thinks to herself. _I just hope Kris doesn’t catch me eating it again._ She snickers at that thought. She can't think of chalk without it bringing up memories of Monday. Of the Dark World. Of Kris.  
  
Susie grumbles as her cheeks begin to turn warm. With more force than needed, she shuts the fridge, grabs her schoolbag, and heads out the front door. As she does, she can't help but wonder how Kris' morning is going. "Probably a hell of a lot better than mine," she says to no one in particular as she steps out into the house’s porch and shuts the front door. Thick, almost thick trees surround the house. A single dirt road leads out into the nearby highway leading to Hometown.  
  
Susie takes a deep breath and begins her walk down the dirt road and into town, her pace less of a stroll and more of a power walk.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The alarm on Kris' cellphone went off. He reached out and tapped a button, silencing the cacophony. As he did, he read the bright colored display: 6:30 am  
  
It was thirty minutes later than initially expected. Somehow, the alarm had failed to go off on time. The teen dragged himself out of bed, but rather than a graceful ascension, he collapsed on the floor face first.  
  
Kris shifted in place, rolling to his right side and putting a hand on his stomach. As he did, he just barely managed to hold back the majority of a wet belch. What did escape had the smell of sulfur, signaling just how ravaged his stomach was from last night's little pie 'indulgence.'  
  
Kris grimaced. He promptly recalled how he had once again lost control over his body, the other 'him' taking control and once again assaulting the pastry his mother had specifically cooked for today. Conveniently, the other him left just as his mother had walked by to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, leaving him to take Toriel's full wrath.  
  
Kris swallowed hard. He would never get used to his mother's face of disappointment; that terrible expression that could make even the mightiest fall to their knees and beg for absolution. He would much rather see her angry. Anger, he understood, he could deal with and work through as he had for so many years now.  
  
Kris continued lying on the floor as his stomach decided on whether or not it would empty its contents before he heard his door open, followed by a familiar voice. He flinched, knowing full well what was to come next.  
  
"Kris, it is time to ge—" There was a pause, which was followed by a frustrated sigh.  
  
Kris could picture Toriel's expression in his mind. It made him feel all the more crushed.  
  
With no real retort, the teen responded with a grunt as he pulled himself to his feet. As he did, he held back another belch, which forced him to bend over in pain. This time, he could feel whatever hadn't yet gotten digested the night prior slowly inching its way up his esophagus.    
  
Toriel stood by the doorframe, arms crossed and with a scowl on her visage. "My child, I would have made you breakfast, but you are probably still full from last night's pie, hmmm?"  
  
Kris didn't reply. How could he?  
  
"I will go put on some green tea on the kettle. I will also see if we have any bismuth subsalicylate in the house," Toriel said, her eyes growing sterner. "And no, this is not a valid excuse to skip school, young man. You made yourself sick, so you are going to take responsibility. Understood?"  
  
Kris nodded, he kept his mouth shut for fear that if he opened it, something foul would come pouring right out.  
  
With a nod and another sigh, Toriel left her teenage son to his own devices. As she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, Kris could faintly hear her mumbling something under her breath.  
  
Moments after his mother had left, Kris sensed a sudden spike in his room's temperature. That was followed by a barely audible hum and a message that rang directly in his mind:

Kris turned his head to face the cage in the corner of his room. Inside, the soul floated, pulsing with faint light every few seconds. Despite it lacking any facial expression, the teen could tell it was enjoying his suffering a little too much. "Oh, shut u—" He started, but was interrupted by yet another belch. This time, because his mouth had already been open, he got a full whiff of the stench.  
  
At that very moment, death would have been the preferable option.

As much as the soul's advice agreed with his instinctual desire, Kris ignored it and went about his daily routine. He reached out for his closet, grabbed his favorite green and yellow-striped sweater, shoes, and black pants, and took them all into the bathroom. As he did, his gut churned once again, the bile resting in the pit of his stomach shooting up his esophagus, and this time, there was nothing he could do to swallow it back down.

Kris, mouth full of vomit, finally conceded to the soul's suggestion. He rushed down the stairs and into the bathroom, his stomach heaving and pumping as he did, to the point that he could almost feel bile leaking out of his lips. He practically kicked the bathroom door open as in a fluid motion opened the toilet seat and fell on a knee as his very body gave into his stomach's request.  
  
For the next two minutes, the bathroom was filled with Kris' heaves and groans. Occasionally, he would allow himself a breath of air before his gut resumed expelling every last liter of what had once been a delicious butterscotch pie.

Kris had neither the mental fortitude or verbal ability to ask the soul just how it was able to communicate with him while he was not in his room. He was far too preoccupied with the horror before his eyes.  
  
When Kris' stomach had finally expelled every last bit of bile, he flushed the toilet and allowed himself a deep sigh of relief. The discomfort was gone, but in its place was a gnawing emptiness.

Kris could only emit another burp in reply.

Kris, mouth empty and gut emptier, finally turned his full attention to the matter of the soul's communication skill. "How are you talking to me right now?"

"When you say it like that, you sound eerie," Kris replied.

Kris felt curious at that statement. He raised an eyebrow, a question forming on the tip of his tongue. Before he could ask, however, the soul swiftly continued, answering the teenager's question before it could even be spoken out loud.

"You... had a body? You weren't always some kind of parasite?"

  


"H-hey! You didn't quite answer me!" Kris shouted, only to receive no further answer. He could no longer sense the soul's presence anywhere either. It seemed as if the heart had once again gone dormant.

  
Kris scoffed and clutched his hands into fists. He still had so many questions to ask that invading soul, but the also didn't want anything more to do with it. It was a dilemma he had no means of solving, one that felt more and more ominous the deeper he looked.  
  
Following the heart's last 'words,' Kris reached for the compartment under the sink and pulled out an old rag and a spray bottle of cleaning fluid. Without any fanfare, he applied the liquid and began wiping down the toilet until all he could smell was the overpowering fragrance of fresh spring. He reached for the toilet brush, and after applying another good three sprays of liquid inside the bowl, brushed down the interior before flushing twice, closing the lid, and putting away the cleaning liquid and toilet brush.  
  
Kris sighed and wiped his brow. With the cleaning done, he had no more fuel to add to his mother's annoyance. That much, he had at least going for him now. Now he just had to make sure not to be any later than he was.  
  
At last, Kris turned to his hygiene. He placed his clothes over the now shut toilet seat and turned the shower on. He undresses from his nightwear and put his hand under the water, adjusting the temperature faucet until it was just right. With nothing else to correct, he stepped into the tub.  
  
The warm water made his stiff body loosen while his hair became matted. Despite his body wanting to resume the night's rest, Kris forced movement to combat that. To further help, he lowered the water's temperature. The sudden jolt of frigidity It was enough to get his system out of its contentment. Some soap and shampoo later, the now clean teen stepped out of the tub, applied enough deodorant to last him the whole day, got dressed in his usual getup, discarded his dirty clothes in the nearby hamper, and stepped out into the kitchen area. As always, he wondered why anyone would build his house so that the only bathroom in the entire building faced into the kitchen.  
  
After another stretch of his limbs, Kris turned his attention to the adjacent kitchen, where he spotted his mother just as she finished pouring hot water into a cup. She also had a bottle of pink medicine sitting next to the cup. No doubt the 'bismuth subsalicylate' she had mentioned earlier. Why couldn't she call it 'Bepto’ like everyone else?  
  
"Feeling better?" Toriel coldly asked, her eyes sharp and narrowed as she gazed at her son.  
  
Kris avoided his mother's gaze as he walked up to counter. "Yes," he softly answered. The closer he got, the more he could feel his mother's sharp glare.  
  
Toriel sighed and pushed the cup towards her son. "I hope you didn't make too much of a mess in there," she started, her voice, while still quite frigid, at least a few degrees warmer. "And I do sincerely hope you didn't just drop a bath bomb in the toilet to fight the smell," she added, eyes narrowing at her words.  
  
"I cleaned," Kris answered, still not fully meeting his mother's eyes. Naturally, he made no mention that a disembodied soul had encouraged him to do it.  
  
Toriel nodded. "Thank you," she said, her tone at last sounding closer to its usual melodious self. "I hope you at least learned your lesson," she added.  
  
Kris took a swig of his green tea. "Yeah. Don't gorge on your delicious butterscotch pies before going to bed," he answered, less towards his mother, and more towards that other him somewhere within the recesses of his psyche.  
  
Toriel slid the bottle of pink medicine towards Kris.  Without hesitation, he grabbed the bottle, popped open the lid, and took a hearty swig. He followed it up with his green tea, which he swigged down like a man dying of thirst.  
  
"Kris, I understand that when it comes to pastries and chocolate, you cannot control yourself. But you cannot keep doing that. You will soon be leaving for college. That kind of behavior is not conducive of for a healthy college life."  
  
Kris put the now empty cup of tea down and looked at his mother. Her eyes were set on her feet, brow light and devoid of its former stiffness. He opened his mouth to speak, but in the end, decided against it. He didn't have much to say aside from excuses.  
  
"Mom, I'm sorry about last night," Kris half-whispered. He had to do better, lest he keeps disappointing his mother. "I'll try to do better when it comes to my... appetite..."  
  
Toriel looked to his son, the corners of her lips ever so slightly rising. She put her cup on the counter and walked up to her son. "Promise?" she asked, her eyes full in inquisitiveness.  
  
Kris bit his tongue. Until he could get that other side of him under control, a promise felt far too binding. The idea of making another vow he couldn't keep was not something he wanted on his conscious. "I can't promise that..." the teen started, his gaze drifting away from his mother. "I mean, how can I, when the pies you cook are just that good?" He once again set his gaze on his mother's eyes, a grin forming on the teen's lips as he did. "Honestly, that butterscotch pie is to die for."  
  
A big grin formed on Toriel's lips. "Playing the flattery card, I see," she said, rolling her eyes. "While it is nice to be appreciated, this does not change the subject." Toriel's expression, while not losing its newfound levity, grew ever so slightly sterner as she placed a fluffy hand on her son's shoulder. "If you cannot promise me that you will stop eating sweets as you do, can you at least promise me that you will TRY to stop?"  
  
Kris's gaze darted between the firm fluffy hand on his shoulder and his mother's hopeful yet piercing gaze. He wanted so bad to agree to his mother's terms, but deep down he knew that it wouldn't be an easy promise to maintain. Trying, however, was all he could do. It almost wasn't a choice. He had to, lest that other damnable persona that hid in the pits of his soul graduate from simply indulging in pies to something more sinister. It had already demonstrated its desire to do just that yesterday with Noelle. Who knew what it could do if allowed dominion.

Kris looked into his mother's eyes and grabbed hold of her hand on his shoulder. With a newly resolute expression, he nodded once. "That, I can promise," he answered, his being filling with determination at the prospect to come.  
  
There was so much more riding on the line than just his mother's happiness.  
  
Toriel gave her son a warm smile, with her free hand, she patted Kris on the head. "My child, thank you." She let go of her son's shoulder and turned to face the living room. "Now then, we should be heading out."  
  
Kris nodded and followed his mother out of the house, and into the driveway, where the two got into the family van. Toriel turned the key over and started driving down the street to the school.  
  
As the drive continued, Kris' thoughts turned back to the prospect of the dance later that day. The idea that he was mere hours away from it made his stomach fill with butterflies. When combined with his currently empty stomach, it gave him a rather unpleasant feeling.  
  
“Is something the matter?” Toriel asked, almost as if she could sense her son's sudden unease.  
  
Kris shook his head. "I'm fine. Justs... a bit lost in thought."  
  
“Oh, and what  has got your mind running so much?” Toriel asked, her tone dripping with curiosity.  
  
Kris felt his cheeks burning as he considered telling his mother what was currently on his mind. "Well... I decided that I'll go the Sadie Hawman's dance tonight. I've never really been to a dance before, so I thought it would be fun to ask one of my friends to accompany me," Kris said, making no mention that said friend was in fact, Susie.  
  
He doubted his mother was ready for such news. One step at a time, after all.  
  
Toriel’s eyes lit up at her son’s words. “Oh, that is wonderful to hear! I am thrilled you are so social again! You are going to have an amazing time at the dance for sure!”  
  
Kris wondered to himself if he could somehow take his mother's positive energy and use it to fuel his wavering determination. He had a feeling he would desperately need it later that day.  
  
"Who is the friend you asked to accompany you tonight?" Toriel asked, her attention never leaving the road ahead.  
  
Kris' mind froze for a second. "Uh... well... she's..." Kris started, his mouth running despite his mind desperately concocting a suitable answer. Before he could stop his mouth from running, he spoke out the first non-Susie name that popped into his mind, one that had been plaguing him since yesterday evening: "Noelle."  
  
Kris' mind went near blank. _Noelle!? What the hell am I thinking?_  
  
Toriel hummed in approval. "Noelle is a sweet little thing. Smart, proper, and just so adorable! Alphys tends to sing her praises whenever we are at lunch. Oh, do make sure you drop by and say hi to us at our table tonight! I rarely get to speak to her nowadays. The other teachers will just love you two so much!"  
  
Kris forced a smile, all the while he bit his tongue.  _What have I gotten myself into!?_ he thought to himself. His date was supposed to be Susie, not Noelle. Now, his mother was expecting him to be with the reindeer princess of Hometown at the dance tonight...

Kris spent the rest of the car ride in silence, wondering just how he was going to get himself out of the mess he had just jumped head-first into. _I h_ _ope Noelle's at least having a better morning than I have..._  Kris thought to himself.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-****-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The alarm went off on Noelle's smartphone. The tune of a merry holiday jingle filled the otherwise sterile room.  
  
"Noelle, sweetie. Could you do me a solid and wake up?" A gruff yet gentle voice called out.  
  
Noelle stirred, yawned, and stretched as she rose from the couch bed. She reached out to a small side table by the window and picked up her phone.  
  
It was 6:45 am. Far, FAR later than expected. School was starting in 15 minutes.  
  
Noelle quickly tapped on the screen once, silencing the alarm and bringing up the phone's menu. The background picture was that of four reindeer monsters: Noelle, her father Rudolph, a woman that looked to be somewhere in her mid 30's with short blonde hair, and a teenager who looked on the cusp of adulthood with short blonde hair, multicolored braces, and what looked like sports tape wrapped around their right hand. Each member of the family wore a tacky Christmas sweater, Rudolph's bearing the image of a holiday tree, Noelle wearing her usual checkerboard design, the woman's a picture of a slay packed with gifts, and the teenager wearing one with the picture of Krampus on it. Every member of the family looked happy.  
  
"Hey, wasn't your alarm supposed to go off like, half an hour ago?" the gruff yet gentle voice asked Noelle.  
  
Noelle pushed the phone's power button, dimming the display. "Yeah, it really should have," she said, turning to face the owner of the voice, who lay atop a sterile white bed.  
  
"Gosh, you better get ready then. Wouldn't want my perfect little angel to be late for school!"  
  
Noelle shook her head. "It's okay dad. Ms. Alphys already knows about my overnight visit. She won't mind if I'm a few minutes late."  
  
"Oh? That's convenient. Still, you didn't have to sleep over. Your afternoon visit was more than enough company for your old man."  
  
Noelle widely grinned. "Hey, at least we got to beat Dragon Blazers III!"  
  
Rudolph nodded. "And a damn good game that was. Can't wait to play the sequel."  
  
The alarm on Noelle's phone went off again. She once again reached out to tap on the screen, only this time, she made sure to deactivate the alarm entirely. "Strange my alarm was set so late. Dad, did you by any chance change my alarm settings?"  
  
Rudolph perked an eyebrow. "You think your old man would be so cruel as to play a prank on his precious little peach?" he started chuckling. "C'mon, Kris is the prankster in this town, not me!" the elder reindeer heartily said, his laughter just as gruff as his voice.  
  
Noelle chuckled in reply. "Yeah, this is more of a Kris joke." She snickered again and set her eyes on her phone. "Though... he hasn't pulled any prank since Azriel left town. I kinda miss them, actually," she somberly said. She brought her eyes up to her dad. "Am I weird for saying that? That I miss Kris' pranks?"  
  
Rudolph's expression changed at the question. His eyes grew soft, the corner of his lips rising. "You're feeling nostalgic, aren't you kiddo?"  
  
Noelle sighed and nodded in reply.  
  
"Hey, it's okay to miss those pranks. Hell, it's okay to miss a hell of a lot more than that!" Rudolph said as he rose from his bed and took a sitting position. "The fact that you miss 'em means they meant something. I mean, sure, some of them weren't exactly 'nice'—like the time he covered his arms in ketchup and pretended to be dying—but they represent a time when things were good." Rudolph's expression lowered. "Good times before things kinda fell apart for the Dreemurrs."  
  
Noelle set her eyes on her father; curiosity peaked at his words. She understood the primary meaning of his words; it wasn't exactly a secret about what happened to Kris' family. But she had been nothing but a child at the time, so the subtleties had flown over her head. She was much older and wiser now. Maybe she could understand things better.  
  
"Hey dad," Noelle started, her tone soft and cautious. "Why did Ms. Toriel and Mr. Asgore break up?"  
  
Rudolph's eyes went wide and his ears perked. "Ooooh boy... Noelle, that's a can of worms you DON'T want to open! Besides, you're still too young to understand."  
  
Noelle's brow furrowed in reply. "I'm not a little kid anymore! I deserve to know the reason why my friend changed so much."  
  
"You're unusually curious about Kris. Why the sudden curiosity?" Rudolph asked.  
  
Noelle felt her face grow warm. "A-am I in the wrong for wanting answers?" she asked, her hands curling into fists and a single foot stepping forward. "Am I in the wrong for wanting to know how I can help him?"  
  
Rudolph's gaze shifted sideways, his right hand moving to rub the back of his head. "I mean, not really, no. But what happened between Asgore and Toriel... it's not something I'm allowed to say to just anyone." The reindeer sighed. "Asgore was my best friend. Even if we've got our own lives and we've grown apart, he's still like family. Talking about what happened feels like I'm betraying his trust." He set his eyes on his daughter. "Even if it's you I'm telling."  
  
Noelle's expression changed at her father's words. Her brow loosened, her eyes softened, she shifted her sight to the floor, and her hands uncurled. "I-I guess you have a good point..."  
  
Rudolph looked to the flowers Asgore had sent him hour after he had been administered into the hospital. Even six days after, they were still colorful and fresh. The glass over them probably helped, but there was no denying Asgore's floral expertise had played an even more prominent role. On the same table, next to the glass dome of flowers was a card signed by both Toriel and Kris.  
  
The reindeer allowed himself a long exhale as the sight before him sunk in. "Things that should be together... but aren't..." he whispered.  
  
Noelle's ears perked at the words.  
  
Rudolph turned to his daughter. "Maybe... you're right," he started, his tone full of a weariness that hadn't been present minutes earlier. "It's just that... it's not a happy story." His eyes grew stern, his brow creasing ever so slightly. "Sometimes, it doesn't matter how hard we work or how much we sacrifice; things just... don't work out." The reindeer allowed himself a bitter chortle. "Hell, sometimes it even feels as if our choices don't matter! Everything comes tumbling down when we least expect it..."  
  
"Dad..." Noelle started, but despite her desire to say more, found herself lacking the necessary words in her vernacular. She just stood there, eyes set on her feet, as her father's words sunk into her very being.  
  
Rudolph exhaled. "Hey kiddo, why the sudden long face?"  
  
Noelle's ear perked once more, the rest of her head following not long after as she once again set her full attention on her father. When at last, her gaze was back on Rudolph, she noticed his expression once again changed, the former somber and gravity supplanted by her father's usual cheerful expression. One she wished she could replicate.  
  
"Just because things often don't work out doesn't mean we have to stop trying! It just means that we have to try EVEN HARDER!" Rudolph said with a wide toothy grin on his lips. "So don't give up, kiddo! You go out there, and you find your happiness. And bring it here so I can also bask in it too!" the reindeer added, all the while laughing as heartily as he could.  
  
Noelle felt newfound resolve grow within her. With a determined expression, she nodded to her father's words. "I won't let you down!" she firmly said.

"Good. Now then, I'll tell you what happened...But not right now," Rudolph said, his eyes glancing at the clock in hanging by the sickroom’s entrance.  "It's a looooooooong story, and I kinda doubt you have an hour or two to spare right now."  
  
Noelle didn't even need to look at the time to agree with her father. She had been pushing her schedule the moment she had woken up late.  
  
"Tell you what. If you pay your old man another visit this afternoon, we can talk about it in all the detail you could ever want. Just don't go telling Ms. Toriel or Kris that I told you, okay?"  
  
At those words, Noelle felt herself freeze. She was so ready to accept her father's offer, but then she remembered that the dance was that afternoon. A part of her still wanted to attend, even if her plan to ask Susie had failed miserably. She had been so close too, had it not been for Kris being there with Susie...  
  
Noelle shook her head. _No, he isn't to blame. It was just bad timing on my part._  She gritted her teeth as her cheeks burned.  _If anything, it was Berdly's fault. Why did I follow him out of the classroom? I barely like the guy as is! Why didn't I tell him to leave me alone? Am I that much of a doormat?_  
  
"Hey, earth to Noelle! You still with me?" Rudolph asked, his eyes set on his daughter. "You... kinda got quiet AND angry there for a second! Did your old man say something that peeved you off?"  
  
Noelle quickly shook her head and put on a feigned smirk. "Oh! Nothing like that!" she said, with a laugh added for good measure.  
  
Rudolph again perked an eyebrow. "Sweetie, I know when you are covering something up. What's got your head making turns now?"  
  
Noelle sighed. "Still as perceptive as ever, aren't you dad?"  
  
Rudolph chuckled. "Hey, when you're a parent, you have to be."  
  
Noelle cleared her throat. "Fair enough," she said, walking up to her father's bedside and placing a hand on his. "It's about tonight. You said that you would be willing to tell me about Kris' family fall out. The issue is..." she brought a hand to her face, which she used to scratch her cheek. "...well... there's this dance tonight... and I kinda wanted to go..."  
  
Rudolph chuckled in reply to his daughter's words. "Oh, is that it! Here I thought you had something more pressing weighing you down! Of course, you can go to that dance! Hell, if I could, I would probably volunteer as a chaperone!"  
  
Noelle gave her father a warm beam. "I know you would, dad."  
  
"So, let me guess. You're nervous because you asked that one girl you fancy to the dance, and she agreed?"  
  
Noelle somberly shook her head. "It's the opposite. I didn't even get a chance to ask her. I was still debating whether or not even to go. Or, I was, up until this morning."  
  
Rudolph brought a hand to his chin. "Oh, I get it!"  
  
"So yeah, looks like I'm coming over tonight again."  
  
Rudolph shook his head. "No. You're going to that dance, and you're going to have a good time."  
  
Noelle's eyes widened. "Dad! I-I could never do that! Do you know how embarrassing it would be if I showed up all by myself? I would die from it. Literally, I'd DIE!"  
  
Rudolph waved a hand. "Oh, nonsense! Going by yourself shows you aren't part of that whole 'social herd' mentality. A Holiday can have a good time anytime anywhere!"  
  
Noelle's cheeks turned rosy. "Honestly, I wish I could share your enthusiasm."  
  
Rudolph laughed. "You're getting there, sweetie!" He grabbed Noelle's hand with both of his palms, his eyes growing soft as he looked into his daughter's eyes. "I don't want you cooked up in this room when you can be having a good time. You're too young for that. You should be out there enjoying your youth while you still can!"  
  
Noelle looked deep into her father's pleading eyes. A part of her still wanted to be there for her dad, but she couldn't deny the desire of attending the dance that gnawed at her very being. What was more, she couldn't just ignore her father's plea.  
  
Noelle returned her father's grip on her hands. "Okay, I'll go," she replied. "But you have to tell me everything when I visit you on Saturday."  
  
Rudolph nodded. "I will. Though again, it's quite the long story."  
  
"I'll have time. I'll even bring snacks!" Noelle replied.  
  
"Speaking of time..." Rudolph said, his eyes drifting up towards the clock on his room. "You, uh... may not like what time it is right now."  
  
Noelle's eyes widened as she reached for her phone and turned on its display.  
  
6:55 am.  
  
"Oh no," Noelle whispered as she frantically rushed. "I still need to pass by the house and freshen up a bit! I mean, what would people think if I showed up looking like this?!" she asked pointing to herself.  
  
Aside from slightly frizzled hair, Noelle looked every bit as formal as ever. Her dress was as wrinkles as always, and the sweater vest she wore over her outfit looked as if it was fresh out of the washer.  
  
Rudolph heartily laughed. "Oh, Noelle. You are so much like your mother!" he slammed his hand on the side of his bed, his laughter continuing until he was forced to stop due to his coughing.  
  
Noelle also laughed. "Not yet. I haven't been elected class president!"  
  
"Just head of the cross country team!" Rudolph replied. "Give it time, kiddo!"  
  
That only prompted more laughter from the two reindeer monsters. Father and daughter shared the good and happy giggling for as long as it lasted.  
  
Eventually, Noelle had to bid her father farewell. She rushed down the halls of the hospital and out into the street, where she quickly began her trek to school.  
  
As she did, she couldn't help but wonder how the rest of her Friday would play out. Who knew, maybe she would still get her chance to ask Susie out.  
  
Maybe.

 

* * *

* * *


	3. A FRIENDLY GAME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A (not so) friendly game of dodgeball.

* * *

* * *

"Tardy. I'm... so... SO TARDY..." Noelle whispered through raspy breaths as she raced down the street.

Despite not heading back home as intended initially, Noelle wasn’t making much headway. By the time she could see the school materializing in the early morning fog, nearly 30 minutes had flown. “So much for supposedly being the fastest on the track team,” she grumbled to herself.

When Noelle entered through the main doors, she was struck by the relative silence of the halls, the only signs of life in the school being muffled voices behind closed classrooms.

Noelle headed down the hallway and took a left turn, reaching her classroom door. But as she reached for the handle, she froze. “Just… get it over with,” she whispered as she turned the handle and prepared herself for the worst.

Every set of eyes in the room set themselves on Noelle the moment she opened the door. Most wore a mixture of surprise, with Berdly showing both, and Susie showing her usual indifference. Kris’ expression, however, was closer to relief for some reason.

“Oh, Noelle! Good morning!” Alphys cheered as she turned to face her. “I had started to think you wouldn’t be coming today. Glad you could join us!”

Noelle smiled at her teacher but said nothing as she walked to her desk. As she did, she chanced another glance towards Kris and Susie. While Susie remained as stoic faced as ever, Kris’ coloration had turned a shade darker than usual.

“Never thought I would see the day that you of all students would be late to class,” Berdly said just as Noelle took her seat next to him. “To think my academic equal would let herself fall to such depths. Shameful!” he added, leaning over and giving the doe his toothies grin. “I do hope this does not become a habit for you. The last thing we need is for the second-best student in our class to take up the roles that Susie and Kris seemed to have dropped!”

Noelle shrank into her desk, cheeks growing flusher by the second. _It’s not like I set out to be late in the first place,_  she thought to herself. _It’s not my fault my phone went off only 15 minutes before school! It’s not my fault that I seem to be the only one to care for dad’s condition! It’s not my fault that mom cares more about work than her family! It’s not my fault! It REALLY isn’t… my…_  she grumbled. Despite how loudly Noelle wanted to yell at Berdly, she did and said nothing, instead only setting her head on the desk and sighing in defeat. It wasn’t like he was wrong. She just wished he could be less… blunt about it.

Susie’s hands curled into fists as she set a glare on Berdly. Usually, she wouldn’t care about what the bird squawked about, but she drew the line at him using her and Kris as examples of what NOT to do.

Susie opened her mouth to retort to Berdly, but she was interrupted when Kris suddenly slammed both his hands on his desk. “Berdly…” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Shut. The hell. Up and leave. Noelle. ALONE!” he roared, his eyes wide, his glare looking so sharp that it could bore through concrete.

The whole class went quiet. One could almost hear a record needle scratch somewhere in the distance. Even Berdly, who ALWAYS had some comeback, kept his beak shut. Noelle, however, was the most speechless of all. Unlike her classmates, she was silent because she couldn’t find the words to articulate what her emotions were telling.

Shock sprung up first, followed by fear; fear at seeing Susie and Kris so angry about anything. Past that, she felt gratitude at Kris having stood up for her. But perhaps most perplexing of all, there was warmth and affection present. All those feelings created a storm of confusion. As Noelle looked into the human’s partially obscured face, she noticed a faint crimson glow emanating from underneath the long strands of hair that always covered his eyes. She blinked a few times, but when she again set her sight on Kris, the glow had vanished.

Berdly shot Kris and Susie one final smug grin as he turned back to face the front of the class. Alphys, who had been standing in front of her chalkboard slack-jawed at the earlier exchange, cleared her throat. “Okay! Now that we got... THAT out of our system… we should probably return to our l-lesson!”

The whole class, minus Kris, Noelle, Susie, and Berdly, nodded in agreement. Alphys turned back to the chalkboard and resumed the lesson. Every once in a while though, Kris would shake his head, almost as if he desperately wanted to dislodge something stuck in his hair.

The rest of the morning went by in a blur. That lasted until 11 am, when the bell rang, signaling PE for Alphy’s class.

Everyone filed out of the room and toward the gymnasium. As Noelle made her way, she ran across Kris, who was walking while being seemingly lost in thought. She smiled to herself as she picked up her pace, eventually managing to catch up to him.

“H-hi Kris!” Noelle started, giving the human her usual cheery smile as she matched her pace to his. “About what happened back in class. Thanks. It means a lot… to me. What you did. With Berdly. You know…” her cheeks turned an even darker shade of pink.

Kris half-smiled and nodded. “It was nothing,” he said, his eyes not quite meeting Noelle’s.

Noelle shook her head, her brow furrowing. “Oh, I sometimes wish I could be more assertive, especially towards Berdly!” she said, putting a hand on Kris’ shoulder. “I mean, if you can learn to be so assertive in less than a week, I should be able to as well, right?”

Kris nodded in reply but said nothing. Instead, he set his sight on the floor, his usually yellow toned cheeks turning a shade of crimson.

Noelle’s ears perked as she noticed Kris’ lack of a reaction. “Is something the matter?”

Kris finally turned to look at Noelle, his eyes set on her’s. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if preparing to say something, but just as quickly as that had started, his eyes lost their luster, and the very air seemed to leave his lungs.

Kris sighed and shook his head. “No. Nothing’s wrong,” he said in a meek, defeated tone. He quickly turned away from Noelle and picked up his stride, turning his walk into more of a jog. In less than a minute, he had become lost in the crowd of students in the hall.

Noelle felt a slight pang on her chest. _I wonder if it’s something I said?_  she thought to herself as she continued making her way towards the gymnasium, all of her thoughts turned towards her human friend.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Noelle was the second girl out of the locker room. As usual, she was beaten only by Susie.

Unlike her uniform, which was a modest white shirt and blue jogging shorts, Susie wore an almost skin-tight red and black tracksuit. Noelle often had to calm herself, as just looking at the drake’s curvy shape was enough to get her feeling ten degrees hotter. Still, it was nice to see Susie wearing nice clothes for once, even if her current outfit had once belonged to Dess, who had just so happened to be Susie’s height when he had attended school.

As Noelle looked at Susie, she expected her temperature to rise as usual, yet after about a minute, she still felt nothing. She attributed the lack of a reaction to the familiarity factor at first, but she wasn’t sure. Still, the fact that she wasn’t rushing towards the nearest water fountain to drench herself in cold water was refreshing. It saved her time and explanations to the coach, as she was starting to run out of those.

Speaking of the coach, he was already front and center of the class. Coach Aaron wasn’t exactly subtle in appearance or personality. If his already unusual appearance as a floating merhorse hadn’t already struck any potential onlooker, then the fact that he constantly flexed his muscles in ever more outlandish forms would. About the only thing missing was him kissing the grotesquely bulging masses of flesh, and that was only because the principal had threatened to fire him if he so much as gave one of his biceps a peck.

Noelle looked around the gym, noting how most of her classmates sat near the front bench, with Kris and Susie taking up the farthest and highest bench, leaving a wide gap in the middle. She also noticed that there were other students mixed into her class.

The group of newcomers was made up of a blue alligator wearing plain PE clothes and a headband holding back wily blonde glam rocker hair, a light gray bunny girl wearing a bonnet and a baggy gray tracksuit, a darker gray bunny boy with slick short hair wearing a punk-rock shirt under a bright red tracksuit, a stocky brown bear wearing a plain white shirt and PE shorts, a red mouse-goblin girl with a scarf wrapped around her neck and the tiniest of yoga outfits, and a light green froggit in a darker a green tracksuit. Each one of them bore a look of absolute horror, their eyes unable to turn away from the sight that was Coach Aaron.

Noelle felt sorry for them. Those students had not needed to be exposed to Coach Aaron’s particular physicality. She doubted any of them would be forgetting the sight anytime soon.

Inspecting the front row, Noelle spotted Berdly. Still angry at the smug avian, she decided to seat in the bench right in front of Susie and Kris. She didn’t say a word to either of them, only giving the pair a wave and smile, which only Susie attempted to return in a relaxed, yet amicable enough manner.

Noelle’s heart fluttered a bit. She was so happy that Susie had started opening up over the last five days. Before, she had just opted to ignore such display of comradeship. _She has changed ever since she started hanging around Kris._

Noelle tried to again look at Kris, only for the human to look away from her, his face still taking on a darker hue of crimson. She wondered for a second just what was going through his mind, but her attention went to Coach Aaron when he started speaking over the class’ usual pre-PE cacophony.

“Hey! Glad to see most of you are getting faster at dressing! Maybe today, we’ll have time to run the full dodgeball game!” Coach Aaron started, his tone loud and ‘machofied,’for lack of a better term. He punctuated his words with a flex, the muscles on his arms bulging to the point that the skin looked ready to burst.

Everyone turned to face each other. “ ‘full game?’ ” Berdly asked as he scoffed. “I do not know if you have looked around lately, but our class is not exactly ‘full game’ friendly,” he added, chuckling as he turned around to face Susie, Kris, and Noelle. “Some of my classmates are not even known for having functional social skills.”

Susie’s brow furrowed. “Sounds to me like someone’s itching for a lesson in what ‘social skills’ translate into!” she bellowed, her hands curling into fists.

Berdly giggled. “Susie, while there is no denying that you certainly can do with extra lessons on that particular subject matter, I was not talking to you.” The avian’s eyes fell squarely on Kris. “Care to use that newfound voice of yours to refute me, huh Kris?”

Kris said nothing, his expression remaining stoic, but on closer inspection, Noelle noticed his hands curling into such tight white-knuckled fists that she feared he might break the skin on his palms with his fingernails.

“Hey there, if you lot want to settle something, then you do it in the court of valor! And by ‘court of valor,’ I mean in this here gym!” Aaron once again flexed, this time, his back muscles popping out and forming bulbous masses. “Since it sounds to me like we’re all itching for a bruising, then I say we get this game underway!” The coach pointed his hoof at Susie and Kris. “Since you two have both been coming to class on time and have been participating so much for a change, I’m making the two of yous captains!”

Berdly turned back to face the coach. “Hey, time out! If ANYONE should be a captain, it should be someone smart, well-versed in the art of tactical thinking and has perfect academic scores across the board. In other words, yours truly!” he said, putting a wing on his chest. He turned his head sideways and shot a glance at Susie and Kris. “Neither of those two knuckledraggers back there know the first thing about leadership! Susie would probably beat everyone up instead of leading, and Kris barely talks!”

Aaron laughed in reply. “Berdly, I like your enthusiasm! Sadly, you’re too much of a poindexter to be captain material!”

Berdly rolled his eyes and sighed. “Okay. But do not say you were not warned,” he added as he retook his seat.

Coach Aaron set his eyes on both Kris and Susie. “But those two,” he started, pointing his hoof at the pair, “those two have this… air to ‘em.”

Berdly let out a single chuckle. “Yeah, the ‘air’ of social ineptitude,” he whispered to no one in particular.

Coach Aaron ignored the bird’s words as he continued. “Yeah, Susie there looks like she could match my weightlifting prowess! And Kris there… he strikes me as having a heck of a lot more to show than just whatever it is you’re squawking about,” he added, pointing his hoof at Berdly.

Berdly’s brow furrowed. “No offense coach, but I do not believe you have any actual idea about what you are talking about.”

Aaron heartily laughed in reply. “I’m a physical educator, not a teacher of philosophy! I’m going by what my gut tells me, and my gut’s telling me those two have potential!”

Berdly rose a wing and opened his beak as if to add a further interjection, but his beak slowly closed again as he lowered his limb. He shot Susie and Kris one final glance before adjusting his glasses. “No further comment,” he said in a deadpan tone.

Aaron nodded once. “Yeah! I will assign you your teammates! May the best dodgeballer win!”

Coach Aaron called up Susie and Kris to the front of the bleachers. He then assigned everyone else either a number one or two. “People who are ‘one’ go with Susie. People who are ‘two’ go with Kris!” he said, clapping together his hooves.

Five minutes later, everyone was in their assigned teams and had taken their spot on the side of the court. Coach Aaron had already brought out the bags of red rubber balls and had handed out the colored jerseys for each team to wear.

On Kris’ team were Noelle, Berdly, Catti, Monster Kid, and three of the outside students, the light gray bunny, the froggit, and the alligator.

On Susie’s team were Snowdrake, Temmie (and her hard-boiled egg), Jockington, and the remaining outsider students.

“Oh, joy! I got stuck playing for the mute,” Berdly bemoaned, his eyes set on Kris, who in turn looked to be just as unsatisfied with the numbering results. “Well, at least I cannot complain TOO much about this predicament of mine. You at least seem to know your place and will not try and punch my head off the moment I turn to look away.”

“Yo man, why not instead of complaining, you try and be a team player?” Monster Kid asked. “Sure, Kris doesn’t talk much, but I’m sure he’ll be a good captain.”

Catti looked up from her phone. “MK makes a good point,” she said, right before returning to looking at her phone’s screen.

Noelle exhaled and walked up to Berdly, her brow creased. “You have been nothing but rude all morning long,” Noelle started, trying her best to channel all the anger she had built up for the mockingbird all morning long. “If you don’t stop being such an ass, you’re going to wind up… uh…” Noelle began to stammer, the fire in her belly slowly going out as her natural sense of humility began to return. “Well… not... having... the best of time…” she barely managed to gasp out.

Berdly raised an eyebrow. Noelle took a step back and turned around to hide the beads of sweat forming on her brow.

“Berdly,” Kris started, the fact that he was once again speaking catching almost everyone off guard. “Like it or not, you’re on MY team.”

Noelle, taking the opening Kris had just provided, quickly wiped the sweat off her brow and turned to face Berdly. “Y-yeah! You can either… p-play and get your daily activity grade, or you can sit out and get marked up!”

Berdly glanced at their coach, who was floating by the bleachers, flexing as he waited for his students to finalize their team preparations. “Does our coach even know how to grade a class?”

“Yo, he’s the coach! He probably had to, like, go to college to get a teaching credential, or whatever it is you need to be a teacher,” Monster Kid said.

Catti looked up from her phone for the second time that day. “MK’s right,” she casually said before once again returning her gaze to her device.

One of the outsider students, the bunny girl, stepped up to the group. “Um... Howdy. Now, I know I ain’t a part of your class so I know less than nothin’ about what ya’ll are going on ‘bout, but... well…” she pointed to Susie’s team, all of who had already taken their positions and looked to be ready to start the game. “Can we mosey on along and get this here game going quick-like?”

Both the alligator and froggit nodded in agreement. “Like, you guys talk WAY too much. Especially the bird there,” the alligator added.

“Kero, kero. Some of us want to play! Kero, kero,” The Froggit chimed.

Berdly shot Kris one final glare before exhaling in defeat. “Fine. Kris—and I cannot believe these words are coming out of my beak—act the team captain part.” He snickered under his breath. “But if you feel like this is way above your head... You know who to ask for help.”

Kris nodded in agreement. “Noelle, you’re my co-captain,” he said, turning to face the teenage doe.

Noelle took a step back, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink. “W-wa—ME?!” she asked. “I-I—Kris, I-I… D-don—U-uh…”

Berdly looked as if he was getting ready to say something else, but on seeing the looks the rest of his team was making, he scoffed, turned around, and shrugged. “Let us just… get this over in the swiftest, least painful way possible.”

Kris again nodded. He motioned for his team to form a circle. He took a deep breath of air…

            

 

“Okay. MK, Berdly; you're cornering. Attack when possible, but your priority is defending. Catti and uh… Bunny girl…?”

“Marissa. Probably should have introduced ourselves sooner. This here is Keroppi,” she pointed to the froggit, “and that there is Dundee,” she pointed to the alligator.

“Like, hay, hay!” Dundee cheered.

“H-Hello! Kero, kero,” Keroppi added.

Kris nodded and resumed with his battle plans. “Catti, Marissa; you’re catchers. Try to catch the ball when possible, but otherwise don’t worry too much about going for a kill. Dundee, Keroppi; you are throwers. Whenever you see a ball, you attack the enemy. No mercy. Noelle, you’re with me. We’re snipers. We hang near the back and attack only the vulnerable.” Kris clasped his hands together. “Am I missing anything?”

“You want us to refer to you as ‘sir’ from now on?” Berdly asked, snickering under his breath.

“Alright, let’s do this then,” Kris replied, ignoring Berdly’s comment again.

Every member of Kris’ team took their post on the field. They all stretched to limber up, Kris looking in Coach Aaron’s direction and nodding to give the merhorse the go-ahead.

“Geez, took you losers long enough,” Susie mocked from her side of the field. “Did the idea of facing me unnerve you that much, Kris?”

Kris laughed in reply to Susie’s words. “Had to deal with some insubordination.”

Susie crossed her arms and scoffed. “Berdly?”

Kris nodded.

Suie was the one to laugh this time. “Should have said something! Could have traded ya for one of my guys,” she said, quickly glancing back at her teammates. All of them visibly recoiled in fear of the big terrible dragon.

“Hope you’re ready to get your ass kicked!” Susie boasted, cracking her knuckles and stretching her shoulders for added emphasis.

Kris wiped his nose and grinned in reply to Susie’s boast.

Noelle was again taken aback by the fact that Kris was showing genuine happiness, and towards an individual that by all rights he should hate.

Susie was a bully, his bully. She had tormented him on an almost daily basis since the two were in grade school. So why was he so cordial with her now? Just what happened that Monday to cause such a massive shift in their dispositions? The last week alone had seen Kris do a complete personality shift. Last Friday, he wouldn’t have risen to the role of team captain, or even bothered with doing anything save for the bare minimum needed to get a passing participation grade. There he was today, ready and willing to be a part of the class, stepping up to the role of leader, smiling all the while. _Also, don’t forget that he stood up for you,_  Noelle reminded herself.

Coach Aaron blew his whistle, and Noelle was snapped out of her thoughts and was brought back down to reality.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Over the next twenty minutes, the dodgeball game raged on, both teams regularly winning and losing teammates as the minutes dragged on. Neither Susie nor Kris seemed to be letting up in their roles as captains, each student commanding their classmates in such a way that a week ago would have been impossible for either of them. Kris opted to signal with his hands and give short yet precise commands. Susie chose to shout her orders while still doing most of the attacking herself.

Noelle couldn’t help but be awestruck at the two methods of leading. _If those two ever team up, they will be super effective,_  she thought as she took a shot Kris had called for her, resulting in her knocking out Jockinton. Sadly, he went right back in, as Snowdrake caught one of Berdly's shorts.

“Common Kris! Just give up already, you goddamn nerd!!” Susie roared.

Kris replied with a shot, which Susie dodged. “We are not giving up, you tailless lizard!” Berdly snapped back. “Oh, I am SO sorry! Did I strike a nerve?” he slyly asked as he covered his beak and giggled.

Susie’s cheeks went bright red. “I-It’s... GOING TO GROW OUT ONE DAY! It’s just… taking longer than EXPECTED!!” She growled, picking up one of the balls and throwing at Berdly, who yelped in shock and froze in place.

Kris jumped in front of the ball and blocked it with the ball in his hands. He glanced back at Berdly and gave the avian a nod before dropping back into the back rows.

Berdly scoffed, “I could have dodged that assault on my own. Thank you…” he grumbled under his breath.

Noelle sighed. _Even though he’s been giving you hell, you still protect him,_ she thought, the event replaying in her head. Sure, there was an ulterior motive for Kris, but that didn’t change the fact that he had put his wellbeing at risk with that maneuver. The corners of her lips rose. _You’ve changed a lot in only a week..._  she thought, warmth filling her being.

“Oh Yeah! THAT’S the kind of hussle I like to see!” Coach Aaron said as he flexed his biceps. “We’re nearing the five-minute mark! Captains, make your last plays!”

Kris and Susie shot each other a stare from across the field. Rather than speak, the two nodded in agreement.

Kris turned to his team. “Dundee, Keroppi,” he started, pointing towards the balls lined up in the center of the field. “You’re up.”

Alligator and froggit rushed forward, each managing to snatch a ball away from the enemy, which they passed on to Kris and Noelle. Unfortunately for the two, Susie had squared them up the instant they had rushed forward. “You’re gonners!” she shouted. Wide toothy grin on her lips as she launched her assault.

The ball impacted the alligator on the stomach before bouncing towards the froggit, who took the hit to the side of the head. Susie laughed triumphantly. To make matters worse, Jockinton managed to sneak past everyone and attacked Monster Kid and Marissa, knocking them out of the game before Kris could warn them.

“Ouch… Sorry, Kris. Jockington got me good,” Monster Kid said as he struggled to stand back up. “Best of luck to ya, dude!”

“Gosh darn it! That there rattler got me somethin’ fierce! Sorry darlin’, but it looks like this here bunny’s been taken out,” Marissa said as she stepped to the sidelines. “Still roottin’ for ya though, cap’,” she said, adding with a wink to the end of her words.

Noelle felt a pang of anger at the sight of that wink, though she wasn’t sure why. Susie actively replied to it by striking Marissa on the back of the head with a ball, forcing the bunny to rush out of the field before she could say or do anything else.

Berdly barely dodged an attack as he turned to face his team.“Oh, this is absolutely WONDERFUL! We’re down to four with less than five minutes to go!” he complained as he backed away from the front row. “It is game over for us. Game. Over!”

Running out of time, and with four of their teammates out, Kris turns to Coach Aaron and motions for a time-out.

“Time out! Make it quick though! Not much time left for all of ya, yeah!”

Kris motions for his team to gather around him. “Got an idea.”

“Let us hope it is a good one, though knowing you, it is probably going to backfire spectacularly,” Berdly said.

Kris replies with a sharp glare, his nose visibly twitching.

Noelle again sets her eyes on Kris, her mind trying to piece together just what kind of emotions hid behind the human’s usually stoic face. That’s when she again noticed a faint crimson glow in his eyes just as she blinked. When her eyes reopened a fraction of a second later, she saw nothing but the shadow cast by the bangs over his eyes. _Okay. I’m sure I saw something that time…_  she thought to herself.

Kris once more exhaled long and deeply as he readied what would no doubt either win them the game or cause them an embarrassing loss. A defeat was not something he looked forward to, as it would just give Susie ample ammunition with which to tease him with.

            

 Kris rubbed his chin as he looked at Berdly, the corners of his lips rising ever so slightly. “Berdly, you’re front and center. Catti, Noelle, you’re with me in the back.”

Berdly backed away from the huddle. “Hey! What? No, no, no, NO! I do NOT approve of this plan of yours!” he squawked. “If YOU think that I am going to go along with it, then you must be CRAZIER than everyone already thinks you are!”

Kris’ grin grew slightly wider. “Okay, I guess you don’t want to be the hero of the hour then,” he said, turning to face Noelle and Catti and putting a hand on his chest. “I’ll be the shield then.”

Noelle was the first to take the hint of just what Kris was plotting. With a mischievous grin on her own, she put her hands together in a show of adoration. “You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for our sakes! Winning like that isn’t winning at all!”

Catti was next to pick up on the ploy. She sighed and stuffed her phone away. “Dude… Mad respect,” she said, giving the human a small, yet warm smile.

At first, Berdly was utterly confused by the happenings before him. But being as smart as he was, it took him less than a second for the implication to set in, at which point his brow furrowed.

Berdly cleared his throat to get his teammates’ attention. “After giving Kris… idea… some more thought, I have decided that it may be sound.” He stepped forward, chest puffed and head held high. “I will be the shield!” a sinister grin began to form on his beak as he took his position front and center.

Kris turned to Noelle and Catti and gave them a thumbs up of his own. They returned the gesture, and the trio took their post in the back row.

“Captain! You ready to resume?” Coach Aaron asked.

“I’ve been ready to kick ass this whole damn time!” Susie snarled from her side of the field.

Kris gave the Coach a nod in reply.

Coach Aaron blew his whistle, and the game resumed.

Berdly rushed forward and managed to get three balls right from under the opposite team. He tossed two to Noelle and Catti and kept one for himself. He then positioned himself, taking a defensive stance.

Susie took one look at Berdly and laughed cruelly. “Really?” she asked as she glanced at Kris. “This is your brilliant plan?”

Kris nodded in reply to Susie’s question.

“I LIKE IT!” Susie roared as her already wide toothy grin grew wider. She tossed her ball squarely at Berdly’s face.

Berdly just barely managed to parry Susie’s attack with his ball, laughing and closing his eyes for only the faintest of seconds. “You missed me! You undergrown liz—” he started, but his words got cut off as a ball wreathed in a soft amber hue struck him square in the face, sending the avian monster flying backward a few feet, his glasses broken and face red as the ball itself.

“...Just shut the hell up…” Susie grimly said, hand still glowing from the previous attack.

Marissa stood from her seat. “Coach Aaron! She used magic on that last throw!”

Coach Aaron blew his whistle. “Susie! No more magic use! Do it again, and your whole team gets disqualified!”

Susie scoffed and blew her hair out of her eyes. “Whatever. He was pissing me off anyway.” She set her eyes on Catti, raising her had to point directly at her. “You’re next in my kill list,” she started, her finger then drifting towards Kris. “Followed by you…” her finger finally settled on Noelle, “...and you, I’m saving for dessert.”

Noelle swallowed hard as her heart began racing at a hundred miles per hour.

“Okay, guys. New plan. Slow and steady. Attack only in retaliation and don’t overextend,” Kris whispered to his remaining team members.

Coach Aaron again blew his whistle, and the game resumed.

With less than 3 minutes left, Noell, Kris, and Catti gave it all. Despite the odds against them, their strategy was starting to pay off. In less than a minute, Catti and Noelle’s attack had found their marks, knocking out Jockington, Snowdrake, Temmie (and egg), and the three other outsider students. But for all their efforts, Susie had remained far too mobile to knock out reliably.

“Three versus one huh!” Susie roared, grabbing two balls off the floor. “I LIKE THESE ODDS!!” she set her eyes on Catti first, and just as she had promised earlier, launched an attack at the feline monster. She had no chance to dodge and was struck in the stomach, causing her to collapse on the floor.

“Sorry. I’m out,” Catti grunted, slowly getting up while keeping a hand on her gut.

“NOELLE! I CHANGED MY MIND!” Susie bellowed as she launched her attack.

Noelle’s eyes shrank, her body becoming immobile. _C’mon! Move! S_ _top being so hesitant! Stop being so MEEK!!!_  It was no use. She was as frozen as a deer bathed by a car’s headlights.

Noelle closed her eyes and resigned herself to her fate. _I’m so sorry, Kris…_

Suddenly, Noelle felt something collide with her right shoulder. The force was enough to shove her away from the ball’s trajectory, the unmistakable sound of spherical rubber hitting its target filling her ears as she hit the floor.

As Noelle allowed herself a return to the present, she came face to face with the realization that the one to push her had been Kris. He was now lying on the floor face-up, a big red mark on the right side of his face.

“K-Kris!” Susie shouted, rushing forward before stopping in her tracks, looking around, and clearing her throat. “K-KRIS! You… YOU IDIOT! Why would you do something like THAT!?” she asked, eyes shifting from side to side, almost if to make sure no one was staring at her too weirdly.

Kris only replied to Susie with a groan.

“Kris…” Noelle whispered, reaching out a hand to her downed captain. “Y-you didn’t have to… to do that!” She glanced at the floor, “not for me,” she said, cheeks growing warm, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering and making her feel as if her chest was going to burst.

Kris grabbed on to Noelle’s hand and slowly stood up. As he did, he gave Susie a soft look, his eyes warm and apologetic.

Susie grimaced and turned her face away, cheeks growing a darker shade of purple. She instead set her attention to one of the nearby balls, which she picked up, readying herself for the final phase of the game.

“SUDDEN DEATH, YEEH!” Coach Aaron screams out in far too an enthusiastic voice for it to be normal.

“W-what!?” Noelle cries out, looking around the court in confusion. “S-sudden death!!?”

Kris put a hand on Noelle’s shoulder and gave her a nod of reassurance. He picked up one of the balls and gave it to her. “You got this,” he said with a warm smile on his lips before walking away and sitting on the sidelines.

As Kris sat down, Catti turned to face him. “She’s going to lose," she told him solemnly.

Kris turned to look at Catti with a fierce and determined look in his eyes.

“Kris, you silly, naive fool. She is too much of a doormat,” Berdly added, his attention set less on the game’s conclusion, and more on his broken glasses, which he was trying to tape back together. “Still, I would not mind at all if she kicked Susie’s ass for a change. Probably will not happen, but it would be nice.”

Kris half agreed with Berdly. He did want Noelle to win; he was their captain, after all. But he also found himself rooting for Susie just by their relationship. Wishing for her defeat almost felt like a betrayal on his part.

“WOO! Ya go, Noelle! Ya show that there cheater how to properly play this here game!” Marissa cheered from her bench.

“Do your best! Kero, kero,” Keroppi chimed.

“Like, kick ass and take names! Put up that fight! Win!” Dundee remarked.

Even Susie, who by all rights should not have cared about her, grinned widely at Noelle, her face devoid of any malice and instead full the same determined vigor one felt when facing a worthy and respected adversary.

The support of her team, coupled with Kris’ actions from earlier and Susie’s seeming acceptance as an equal triggered something new within Noelle. A maelstrom of thoughts and emotions that flooded her in a way that nothing else ever had. The more she pondered on it, the more she realized that regardless of who won or lost today, someone she cared about would be affected.

Noelle’s cheeks began burning with a mixture of embarrassment and adrenaline.  _What am I supposed to do?_ she thought, her eyes set on Susie. _If I win, I’m going to hurt Susie. But if I lose…_  she turned to look at Kris sitting in the benches behind her, _I’ll be letting Kris down after he’s done so much for me..._

At those thoughts, Noelle couldn’t help but wonder just what Kris and Susie were to her.

Kris was easy to figure out. He had been her only childhood friend growing up. After their families started growing apart though, he became a good, if a distant, friend. Despite that fact, she had always felt a strong sense of empathy for the sole human of Hometown. Yeah, his pranks weren’t the nicest, but despite that, she had this desire in her heart to see him be happy. The idea above most others brought a warmness to her soul that little else could match. He had already been through so much as it was. But there was more. Noelle also envied Kris for his ability to keep on rolling along even in the face of great adversity. She more than anything wished she could take that ingrained courage within him and somehow use it for herself.

Susie...Susie was more challenging to try and puzzle out. That there was an attraction couldn’t be denied, but to describe it as wholly romantic would only be accepting a part of it. In truth, while there was a hope deep down that Susie could be a romantic partner, the root of it was more of an admiration for her strength and prowess. Susie did not need anyone else, and she didn’t let what others said or thought about her stop whatever plans she had. Much like it was with Kris, Susie had yet another quality Noelle wished she could take for herself.

“Yeah!! Let’s put an end to this game once and for all!” Coach Aaron announced. “On my whistle, dodgeball!” he added, bringing the whistle to his lips.

Noelle shook her head and set her full attention on the match to come, her brow furrowing, hands tightening their grip on the rubber ball, her very body coursing with adrenaline. She could feel herself slowly filling with determination.

The whistle blew. Both teens brought up their balls in preparation for their attacks and, without further hesitation from either, simultaneously let loose their strikes.

The seconds dragged as reindeer and dragon stood in place, waiting for just the right moment to either dodge or catch, yet to the shock of everyone watching, neither Susie nor Noelle made any attempts to move. Instead, they both rose their hands in preparation, each hellbent on catching the other’s ball.

As the final seconds passed, everyone watching held their breath. But perhaps none held it longer or harder than Kris, whose torn loyalties only continued to stab at his very being.

The balls reached their destinations. Susie caught her’s without any problem. Noelle caught her shot, but Susie had put so much power behind the throw that she almost felt lifted off the ground as the impact managed to knock some air right out of her gut.

Susie widely grinned at the sight. Without a wasted second in between her catch, she launched another attack.

Noelle, who had just barely managed to compose herself, only had a split second to look up. With minimal options left, she retaliated, but by the time the ball had left her hand, Susie’s attack struck true, striking her square in the face with enough force to send her tumbling right into the floor.

Susie made a fist-pump motion. “Hell yeah! I WO—” she started, but Noelle’s attack found its mark just then, striking her right in the gut. It had nowhere near as much force as Susie could put behind one of her throws, but the stunning strike was enough to catch her off-guard.

Everyone save for Kris looked on with a slacked-jawed expression. Even Coach Aaron had to rub his eyes once before realizing what had just happened. But as soon as he did, he blew his whistle. “YEAAH!!” he shouted. “WE HAVE A TIE!”

Susie looked up to the coach, her face still twisted from the sudden impact to her gut. “No! I won that game!” Susie retorted.

Coach Aaron crossed his hooves. “Sorry kiddo, but it’s a tie!”

Berdly, laughed as he walked next to the Coach. “I am afraid he is correct! You celebrated TOO early and did not pay attention to that final attack.” He leaned forward, a wide toothy grin on his beak. “Better luck next time, Susie~.”

Susie bore her fangs, but said and did nothing, instead turning away from the bird, crossing her arms, and grumbling under her breath.

Kris walked up to Susie and put a hand on her shoulder. “Good game,” he said, his lips ever so slightly perked as he looked into the drake’s shrouded eyes.

Susie turned around to face Kris and slapped him once on the shoulder. “Yeah. Good game.”

Kris turned back to face his team. Seven stood waiting, but one was not present. He looked to the field and spotted Noelle, still lying on the floor, chest rising and falling ever so gently. He walked up to the fallen doe and crouched next to her. Her face still had a red mark on half of it, eyes swirling in a haze.

“Kris, can you get your teammate off the floor?” Coach Aaron asked.

Kris grabbed hold of one of Noelle’s hands and helped her up. She was still far too addled to properly stand, so Kris had to drape one of her arms over his shoulder to keep her steady.

On seeing that, Coach Aaron visibly gulped. “Uh… T-that ain’t good.” His face lost a shade of color as he began sweating bullets. “K-Kris, do your duty as captain and take Noelle to the infirmary,” he ordered Kris in a somewhat shaky voice. “M-make sure she doesn’t have a concussion or nothin’ like that.” He swallowed hard. “Oh brothers, I hope that isn’t a concussion. The mayor would have me skinned alive,” he whispered to himself. “I’m already on thin ice as is because of the weightlifting incident!” he added, shuddering at the thought.

Noelle let out a groan, her free hand moving to grab her head. “Oooh man… feels like I got hit in the head with a bag of bricks…” she said, her eyes traveling from Susie to the rest of the class, and finally, to Kris, whose face was so close to hers she could feel his body warmth. Despite her head still feeling far too woozy for full coherent thoughts, she could feel herself get hotter at the idea of Kris holding on to her as he was. The butterflies in her stomach returned in full force, the redness of her cheeks masked by the red mark still printed on her face, and her heart pumped so hard that it almost felt as if it was getting ready to jump out of her chest through her mouth.

Susie walked up to Noelle and rubbed the back of her head. “Hey, Noelle. Sorry about… this,” she said, motioning to her face with her hands. “Sometimes, I… don’t know my strength...”

Noelle’s cheeks flushed even further. “Oh. It’s okay!” she said in as cheerful a tone as she could muster. “It was a good game!” Her eyes softened. “Though you should have won. The whole me winning thing was... kind of a fluke.”

Susie’s expression hardened. “Nah. I got overconfident! I should have been paying attention,” she said, grinning and shrugging. “Oh well. Lesson learned!” She set her eyes on Kris but says nothing, instead of giving him a nod before walking away.

With nothing left to say or do, Kris helps Noelle walk to the school’s infirmary.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

It was a quiet walk.

Neither teen was in what one would call a ‘good position’ to talk. Noelle felt far too embarrassed and hazy to say anything coherent, and Kris, despite all the thoughts running through his mind, kept his mouth shut out of a mixture of concern and bashfulness.

On arrival at the infirmary, the first thing the two teens noticed was just how empty it was. That was quickly followed by the school nurse, who was a gazelle monster with rosy brown fur, blonde hair, and turquoise framed glasses. “How may I help you?” She asked the two teens as her eyes remained glued to the computer screen.

“Coach Aaron sent us. My teammate took a hit to the head,” Kris replied.

The nurse finally turned away from her computer and looked at the two students. She adjusted her glasses as she scanned both Noelle and Kris. She then noticed how Kris was holding on to Noelle, her eyebrow rising.

“Please sit the patient on the bed over there,” she said, pointing to the examination table at the far end of the room.

With a nod, Kris helped Noelle sit down. Once his friend was seated, he walked back, taking a seat on one of the nearby chairs.

The nurse picked up her stethoscope and walked up to Noelle. “Please sit still,” she said as she began checking her head, eyes, and vitals.

After a few minutes, the nurse put away her stethoscope and turned back to Kris. “Your friend is very mildly concussed. A few minutes of rest and lots of water should clear it right up. I’m also going to request that there be no more physical activity for at least five hours.” She stood up and walked back to her desk. “Thank you for bringing your friend here. Let me write you up a note back to class,” she said, picking up a pen and a hall pass.

But at that moment, the phone rang.

The nurse picked up the call, and after a few seconds hung up. “If you will excuse me for a moment,” she said, walking out of the room, leaving Kris and Noelle all alone.

The two teenagers stayed quiet for precisely fifteen seconds before Noelle broke the silence. “Kris… I-I’m REALLY sorry. About the game...” She looked at her feet, her brow furrowing, and the corners of her lips were falling. “A-and about not being that useful.” She clutched her hands close. “We could have won if I hadn’t been so clumsy!”

Kris stood up and walked up to Noelle. “Stop it,” Kris snapped, his expression stern, even if his eyes remained as shrouded as ever. “You did well. Even made it to sudden death. And against Susie of all people.”

“Yeah… she’s too strong!” Noelle’s said, her cheeks growing rosy.

“Yeah, she’s... solid,” Kris added, his cheeks growing rosy as well.

“I-I mean, she’s, also… crass and crude and mean,” Noelle started, her brow growing sweaty.

Kris shook his head. “Susie’s not… as bad as everyone thinks.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, yeah, she is crude and crass, but underneath all that, she’s quite an awesome person.” He cleared his throat. “Or so I’ve been told. By others. And whatnot.”

Noelle couldn’t help but giggle at Kris’ reaction.

On seeing Noelle laughing, Kris couldn’t help but join in as well.

Both students laughed heartily, each giggle’s pushing the others to new heights.

On seeing Kris be so happy, Noelle felt a warm fuzzy feeling spread from her chest out to the rest of her body. It filled her with a euphoria that she couldn’t describe in words but understood all too well. The last time she had seen Kris be this happy with someone else had been when Azriel was still in town. Back then, the two siblings had laughed daily, their lives seemingly devoid of any negativity. The fact that she was seeing Kris laugh so daintily again filled her heart with a joy she couldn’t put into words. As she giggled alongside her friend, she could feel her eyes glazing over. _Why am I getting so emotional though?_  she asked herself. Whatever the answer was, she didn’t want the happiness to end. She would have given anything in the world to keep that laughter going for the rest of Kris’ days.

Noelle broke the streak of laughter. “I don’t know what happened to you and Susie four days ago… but whatever it was, I’m glad it did! It changed you guys for the better!”

Kris crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying that Susie and I weren’t good people before Monday?”

Noelle’s eyes widened in horror at Kris’ question. “What? No! I-I mean... maybe?” She put a hand on her forehead, already berating herself for destroying the good mood. “I-I mean… there’s something different. Especially with you,” she said, desperate to once again return to the joy they had just been experiencing seconds ago. “You’re not as quiet or as distant as you used to be! It’s like… how you were before…” she stopped herself before finishing those words. “No. Nevermind,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m probably still too dazed to think properly...” she added solemnly.

Kris unfurled his arms, and himself sighed. In that instant, he wished he could tell her about what happened that Monday—about the Dark World and the adventure he and Susie had shared—but he knew well that she probably wouldn’t believe him and would think he was pranking her. One day though, he would get around to it, but today was it, especially since he still had one lingering question to ask Noelle. One he had been putting off. One he was dreading.

With a deep exhale, Kris steeled himself. It was now or never, and he couldn’t afford the ‘never’ part.

“Noelle. I-I, uh… have a favor… to ask you,” Kris started, taking a step forward, close enough to Noelle that had she wanted to, the two could have easily nuzzled each other’s noses.

Noelle’s ears perk, and her eyes widen. “Y-yes?” she asked, the notion that she may yet still be able to fix her mess filling her with newfound resolve.

Kris swallowed long and hard. “I, uh… have this problem. You see… There’s the Sadie Hawkman’s Dance tonight, and I kinda, sorta, maybe... promised my mother that I would be there. Problem is… when she asked who I’d be bringing along, I may have…” he looked deep into Noelle’s eyes, “...told her I would be bringing you,” he said, rubbing one of his cheeks with a finger. “So… uh… W-will you do me the HUGE favor of... g-going to the dance... with me?” Kris closed his eyes instinctively as if that would help lessen the blow that was to come.

_Kris wants to… wants to…_  Noelle repeated in her head over and over. Her cheeks started to burn from how flustered she was getting, her heart pounding even faster than ever before.

Kris himself had fallen into such a state of shock and embarrassment as well, to the point that he had neglected to further inform Noelle about how he was already going to the dance with Susie and that the favor was to help cover-up that fact from his mother.

_Okay. Deep breath and… consider the implications of going to the dance with Kris,_  Noelle told herself. On the one hand, if she accepted, it would mean that she wouldn’t be able to go with Susie. Not that she felt she even had a chance of asking at that point, considering how just thinking about talking to the dragon made her feel as if she would pass out from the sheer embarrassment. 

On the other hand, it also meant that she wouldn’t have to deal with the other students making fun of her for going all alone. What was more, the fact that Kris was so forward about it spoke to the fact that he was indeed improving in the social department; she felt obligated to help him further break out of his shell. _Plus, there’s the bonus that accepting will make him happy,_ Noelle thought to herself. She couldn’t let that opportunity slip by.

Noelle put on the broadest and most genuine smile she could manage, her very expression radiating such happiness that Kris almost had a hard time accepting that it was real, and not forced.

“Yes!” Noelle exclaimed, her tone just as cheery as the smile on her lips. “I’ll go to the dance with you!”

Kris fells his chest just about ready to burst. It left him breathless and stunned to the degree that any word he tried to utter got mangled in the haze of emotions storming in his mind. There was but a single voice in the back of his mind desperately reminding him that he still needed to tell Noelle the real reason he was asking her to the dance in the first place.

Kris, taking another deep breath, opened his mouth to try finish what he started, but at that moment, the nurse walked back into the room, her brow furrowed and her lips thin and pursed.

“Oh, right,” The nurse said soon as she laid eyes on Kris and Noelle. “Still have you two to deal with.” She noted how red Noelle was, her eyebrow rising as she walked up to Noelle to put a hand on the doe’s forehead. “Hmmm… no fever, but you are quite warm,” she told her, prompting Noelle to give the nurse a smile and shrug.

“Ms. Noelle, was it? Lay down and get some rest. I’m keeping you here for a bit longer to make sure you don’t do anything to make that injury any worse.” She turned to face Kriss. “As for you,” she started, her expression suddenly turning stern. “You’ve been out of class far too long. Here,” she said, quickly writing up his hall pass and handing it on to the human.

Kris took the paper but stood there, his eyes moving from the Nurse to Noelle and the piece of paper on his hand.

The nurse again raised an eyebrow. “Something the matter?” she asked. “You have your pass. Now get going.” With those last words spoken, the nurse returned to her computer, her fingers already busy typing up a storm on the word processor she had open.

Kris set his gaze on Noelle. He again tried to speak, but he noticed the Nurse giving him an annoyed glare from the periphery of her vision, almost as if she was readying herself to call the office for assistance with an unruly student.

With nothing more to be done that wouldn’t potentially cause him unwanted trouble, Kris turned and exited the infirmary. After taking only but ten steps away, he stopped to lean by a nearby wall. Sweat began pooling on his brow, his cheeks slowly burning furiously as he finally allowed himself to fully process what he had just done.

The mission was accomplished, yes. Kris had his ‘date’ for the dance and wouldn’t have to worry about his mother finding out about Susie.

But the problem now was that in his social anxiety and stupidity, he hadn’t told Noelle the real truth behind his request. So for all intents and purposes, Kris now had two girls who thought they were his single date, and he had no idea how they would react if they were to find out about his stupidity.

There was something cold in the pit of Kris’ stomach. How had he let things come to this in the first place? He allowed himself to slide down into the floor, head hanging between his legs as he began wondering how he would dig himself out of the hole he had just made six feet deeper.

Much as he hated to admit it, perhaps it was time to get some help from them...

* * *

* * *

 


	4. FORWARD

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susie decides to take a stand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following chapter deals with heavy material and includes tier-three and above language. Reader discretion is adviced.

* * *

* * *

Susie brought a hand to her chin in contemplation.

The day had barely ended, yet there already was some concern over  
whether or not any of the events of that day happened in the first place.

Susie' couldn't help but sigh with mixed regret and some exasperation.

Soon after Kris had taken Noelle to the infirmary, Coach Aaron had turned to face Susie with some annoyance—or anger, if she was honest with herself—visible in his face. She could still recall his words to her:

“Susie! You have to be more careful with that strength of yours. The last thing you need is to hurt someone. ESPECIALLY if that someone is Noelle! Have you any idea what her mother would do to me—er, I mean, you!?”

Susie had waved her coach off as being overly cautious and too much of a brown-noser, but the look that had come from the other students had told her that maybe she should have been taking his warning a bit more seriously. Noelle's mother was the mayor, after all.

Not that Susie should have cared. She, and not some overly-zealous politician, was supposed to be feared at school; it was the very persona she had forged over the last 5 years. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel some shame for it.

Yeah, being the toughest girl in school had its perks, but it didn’t do Susie favors when it came to her sociability or status in Hometown as a whole. After all, how could anyone even consider being friendly with her when they were all too busy being either avoiding or running away from her?

“Hey, I don’t need all those other idiots anyway. Just Kris, Lancer, and Ralsei” Susie said, her cheeks growing warm as she thought back to the trio of friends.

Usually, such words wouldn’t be uttered out loud, but the road to home took her to the outskirts of town. The only things surrounding Susie now were dense oceans of autumn-struck trees that seemed determined to eat the light. The trees certainly wouldn’t care about her thoughts, and she doubted there was anyone within ten miles that could hear her. It hadn’t really struck her until now just how secluded Hometown really was. Little wonder anyone ever visited and everyone wanted out of it. “Hell, if I had a choice in the matter, I would have skipped town a long time ago too.”

As Susie continued walking, more recollections continued to barrage her senses. In particular, the face of one student who didn’t even belong to her class in the first place. “Marissa,” she hissed out, much in the same way as she usually did when talking about Berdly. “How' it even possible that after barely meeting the bunny, I already want to punch her?” She thought about it hard, but she wasn’t quite sure if such a thing as ‘hate at first sight’ existed. “I mean, there kinda has to be something along those lines if ‘love at first sight’ is a thing,” she said to herself. Still, that wasn’t it. There was a more profound reason she felt so much animosity towards the rosy bunny.

Then Susie remembered. The wink. That damnable wink.

Susie’s first clenched into fists as her whole body began to feel warm, almost as if her blood was slowly boiling. The idea of that lagomorph liking Kris… “No,” she whispered, brow furrowing. “Kris isn’t an idiot. The idea that he could fall for that floozy just so she can have her way with him… it’s...” She clenched her fangs so tight she could feel the ringing in her ears. There was something primal in her feelings. Something that transcended mere notions of friendship or comradeship. It was a feeling of want, of need, of protecting something priceless.

“Priceless,” Susie whispered to herself. “That's right... goddamned priceless...”

The word tasted strange to her. It was a rare-enough word that Susie could count the times in her life when something had come along that she could put that label on. Somehow, the human she had once bullied relentlessly now stood atop that small list, and It well and truly puzzled her. Yet, thinking of Kris as a priceless part of her life—a treasure of sorts—felt right. What was more, the idea of him being someone else’s ‘treasure’ made her furious.

Susie laughed to herself. “Oh, wonderful! Why the hell is it that my draconic instincts are going full crazy when it comes to him?” she asked herself. Kris was vital, yes, but was he so important that her instincts were already considering him wealth?

Susie again laughed. “Maybe Kris is MY greatest treasure of all!” She chuckled it off again, but by the time the last sound has left her lips, she couldn’t help but feel as if she had been standing in the sun for hours. If he heard her saying something like that, she probably would pull a Noelle and die from the embarrassment. “Like, I’d full on have a heart attack. Probably dead before even hitting the goddamned floor!” She wiped away a tear in her eyes. “Just saying stuff like that makes it sound like I want to marry the guy...”

Susie stopped in her tracks. Suddenly, the mental image of her in a wedding dress formed in her head.

There Susie was, standing in front of an altar, Father Alvin waiting with an open book of holy scriptures and a warm patient smile on his lips. Next to her was Kris, who was wearing the fanciest tuxedo she had ever laid eyes on, a wide goofy grin plastered on his lips. Father Alvin proceeded with the ceremony, at which point he asked if there was anyone among those gathered that had a say against the union. No one spoke, so father Alvin officially pronounced Susie and Kris husband and wife, at which point Kris moved in for the kiss...

Susie put a hand on her chest to stop her heart from ripping itself right out of her chest. “JUST WHERE THE HELL IS ALL THIS COMING FROM!?!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, all the while proceeding to put her free hand on her head, claws digging right into the scalp as she let out yet another panicked scream from the pain.

Susie shook her head and tried to clear the images from her mind, all the while her face continued to grow so hot that she could have her skin to cook. “Okay! That’s enough fantasizing for me for one day!!” She told herself as she picked up her pace. Yet as she did, the thoughts in her mind continued to assault her. What was more, there was a part of her that actually enjoyed the images and found them more than appealing. It made her heart skip and dance merrily in a way she hadn’t felt for what she could swear had been decades.

There was something else in her mind too. Something more that nagged and tugged at Susie’s heart in a way that was bothersome to the point of pain. With curiosity now fully peeked, she began peeling back the layers of recollection in an attempt to find the source of the sensations now assaulting her very being.

Finally, after what to her had felt like hours, she got to the root of it. One name left Susie’s lips: “Noelle.”

Susie wasn’t used to saying the name. If she had to be honest, she barely knew the girl. It was strange, considering the two had been classmates since middle school, but they had not once had anything that could link them as anything other than just passing acquaintances, and even that was stretching it. “No, that isn’t true,” she told herself. There was actually something that linked them, even if neither of them had really known it at the time:

Kris.

Kris and Noelle had known each other long before Susie had come into the picture. From pure hearsay, she knew the two had a long history dating back to their parents, who had themselves been good friends in college. The two had attended the same kindergarten, followed by the same elementary classes in Hometown’s single school. To say the two were good childhood friends was understating it.

Susie recalled the day’s events again. How Kris had stood up for Noelle during class, how she had been more than happy to be near him during the game, how she had rushed to his aid when he had gotten himself knocked out, how she had smiled and laughed just being near him. That smile, that happiness…

...it also annoyed Susie, but not in the same way as with Marissa's wink. It was more like seeing through the window of a cozy and warm house on a cold and snowy winter night. Seeing the family on the other side of the frosted glass share a moment of joy while the outside world froze, wishing that one could be a part of that, even if one knew well that it was not their place in the world.

Susie wanted so bad to be a part of that friendship. She longed just for once in her life to be counted as a member of something so intimate and wholesome and beautiful. "But I’m not allowed to,” she bitterly told herself. “Noelle earned the right to call Kris her best friend a long, long time ago.”

Susie looked at her hands and felt a cold numbness fill her being. Unlike Noelle, she had not attended Hometown’s school since Kindergarten. She had moved into the town not long after moving on to Middle school. For the duration of 6th grade, she had done her best to try and fit in, with mixed results. Still, she had been happy just to feel like she had a place to fit in.

"Then that night happened...." Susie coldly stated.

From the 7th grade on, Susie was different. Gone was the happy and hopeful girl that had longed to make friends. In was violent, cruel Susie. She targeted everyone she could get her hands on, but none more viciously than Kris.

Why had she chosen Kris? Susie couldn’t remember. Maybe it had been just how cheerful he had been. Perhaps it had been the fact that he was the only human in town. Whatever the reason, she had taken sadistic glee in stripping away that smile, turning his life just as miserable as her own. He had been too easy a mark. “An easy way to get all my stress out,” she whispered, her words now tasting of the vilest poison imaginable.

More and more terrible memories returned to Susie. Times when she had punched Kris, tripped him, taken his money or lunch, called him such foul names such as “bleeder” and “monkey,” or even gone so far as to taunt him with the fact that he would never be a monster like everyone else. Every time, she would revel in the power she had over him, even if he took it silently. After Asriel had left for college when they were all in 8th grade… oh, she had gone all out and had finally caused Kris to break. She had drunk his tears like the finest of juices, savoring the flavor of the misery and pain like the twisted little monster she really was.

Yet no matter how much Susie had tormented Kris, Noelle had been there, ready to provide a shoulder for him to cry on. That went on until Kris himself became distant and cold to the world sometime after 9th grade. Susie’s old antics no longer worked, the human having seemingly grown too indifferent, too callous. Yet, even when he had apparently given up on all aspects of sociability, Noelle hadn’t. She still had spoken to him as if nothing had ever changed, again smiled whenever he so much as spared a glance at her, always asked him if he was doing well or how she could help him that day. Even now, she still was there, ready to help him.

Unlike Susie, who only seemed capable of hurting him.

Susie looked up into the overcast sky with a deep scowl on her face. “If anyone deserves to make Kris happy for the rest of his life, it’s Noelle, not me." She put her hands on her head, groaning as she struggled to make sense of everything. “DAMMIT!” she screamed out to the heavens. “WHY DOES HE TREAT ME SO DAMN WELL!?” she asked to the heavens. Although she was the very embodiment of his miserable childhood, Kris had found it in his heart to forgive her. He had reached out to and pulled her from the darkness to the point that she now wasn’t at all bothered by the idea of sharing the rest of her life with him.

Ultimately, Susie grimly grinned and shook her head. “I don’t deserve him,” she whispered to herself. “He's too good for someone as loathsome as me...”

With a heavy sigh, Susie stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and resumed her trek home, all the while thinking about how lucky she really was to have someone like Kris care about her. She bitterly chuckled. “Maybe someday, I can pay him back for his kindness. It will be the least I can do for someone as precious as he is…”

Susie looked up at the overcast sky again, something wet pooling in her eyes. “Goddammit. What a terrible afternoon for rain...”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Susie, after what to her had felt like hours, at last, arrived at her ‘home.’ The overcast sky made it hard to tell what time it was. Her phone said it was close to 5 pm, but the surrounding woods spoke a different story, their very presence seemingly devouring what little light could pierce through the thick water-laden clouds.  
  
“Shit. Should have walked faster,” Susie said to herself. A part of her wanted to berate herself for letting her thoughts carry her so far into a sluggish haze. Yet, for her slower pace, she only really regretted those final thoughts entering her mind. Everything else was a welcome distraction from the real tormenting thoughts that would have otherwise occupied their place.

Thoughts that were now returning in full force.

Susie stopped inches away from the front door to the barely holding together shack. She glared at that entrance, hand trembling with mingled rage and hesitation as she reached to turn the handle. At the forefront of her mind, one thought continued to torment at her: “Is he here?”

Usually, ‘he’ didn’t get back home until much later in the afternoon. By then, Susie had already gone to her room and locked the door. Not that it mattered, since ‘he’ was usually either too drunk or too depressed to bother her much aside from her daily dose of insults and putdowns. Still, when 'he' got it into his mind, there was very little she could do to stop him. Memories of some of the more unsavory times he had burst into her room demanding to know what she was up to or the times they ran into each other right after he had one too many drinks the night prior swarmed her mind.

With a deep breath to steel herself for what was to come, Susie reached out and gripped the handle. With the highest care, she turned the knob, the old mechanism within barely managing to get its gears turning as the door slowly opened, the rusty hinges screeching in response.

As the door opened, Susie got a good look at her home’s living room. It was messier than she remembered, dozens of empty alcohol bottles and piles of discarded chips bags strewn all over the floor. Yet, the one thing she was expecting wasn’t there. She allowed herself a sigh of relief. _Dodged a bullet there_ , she thought to herself. _If I’m lucky, he’s out again for the whole night. I can only hope that that useless bastard doesn’t show up anytime soon..._

“H-hey! Who the fuck is *hic* there!?” a gruff and slurry voice shouts from somewhere inside the kitchen.

Susie freezes in place, the very hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. _Oh goddammit…_ she thinks to herself.  _Why did he have to be here!?_  With a sigh of designated defeat, she turns towards the source of the voice and quickly comes up with the most ‘appropriate‘ answer. “It’s the mailwoman,” she says with a malicious grin.  _Let’s see just how drunk that bastard is._

“Mailwoman!? *hic* What kind of FUCKERY is that!? Shouldn’t you be out there doing your goddamned work!?!”

Susie grumbles, putting a hand on her face. N _ot drunk enough. Fuck_. Forgetting about her previous plan, she quickly clears her throat. “Who the hell do you think it is, Maug?!” she shouts, her snout instinctively scrounging as if her tongue had just tasted something particularly foul. “You stupidass drunkard,” she added, her last word spat out as if it was regurgitated vile.

“W-watch that mouth of yours *hic*, you ungrateful little bitch!” The voice slurred back viciously.

Susie gnarled. “Who are you calling ‘useless,’ you useless fuck-wit?!”

“You are the u-u-useless parasite *hic*, fucking fuckwitt!”

“Me, useless?! I’m the only one around this damn place that does anything!” Susie shouted back. “I mean, for God's sake! You’re drunk half the damn time, and the other half you’re moping on the ground about how crappy your life is!”

Maug finally stepped out of the kitchen, his steps uneven as an unshaven, unkempt dragon about four inches taller than Susie walked up to her. He wore a white yet stained T-shirt and a pair of navy blue slacks that had more rips than Susie’s own jeans. “You're pushing that luck of yours, you *hic* sorry excuse for a f-f-fucking drake! Didn’t anyone ever teach you to respect your *hic* el-elders!?”

Susie growled, baring her fangs. “Maybe if you ACTED your age, I would respect you!” she pointed a finger at Maug. “As it stands, the only sorry excuse for a dragon that I see is YOU!”

“W-why you little—!” Maug’s brow furrowed, his eyes growing wide and sharp, the very irises glowing a bright ruby as he raised an arm high above his head, his hand curling into a fist so tightly that it looked like the knuckle bones would rip past the already bruised and scabbed skin over them.

Susie raised her own fist in preparation. “Go ahead. I want you to do it!” she taunted her uncle, her own brow crumpling and her yellow eyes growing vivid and bright. “I need a good excuse to kick your ass! So come on and hit me!” a wide toothy grin grew on her lips. “HIT ME!” she shouted at the top of her lungs as she smacked her chest.

Maug let out a roar that shook the very foundations of the house. Susie, though unfazed by the sudden soundwave smashing against her, still had to shift her footing to remain standing.

With fire searing out of Maug’s tightly shut fangs, he brought down his fist with enough heat built up that the very air danced like it was a hot summer day. Susie braced for impact, but instead of hitting the young drake, Maug struck a nearby wall. Still, the blow had been launched with such wicked power, she could feel the air pressure as it darted past her.

There was a loud crash as Maug’s fist effortlessly punched right through the cement wall. Susie’s eyes widened. She had expected her uncle to put some force behind his blow, but she hadn’t expected him to put THAT much raw power.

“Goddamned bitch,” Maug whispered in a surprisingly sober tone as he withdrew his arm from the hole he had just made, dust and pieces of rubble following his arm. “You’re just like him…”

Susie was caught off guard by that comment. She set her gaze on her uncle. The instant she did, she noticed his expression suddenly shift. While his eyes still glowed a vivid crimson, they also held another emotion she couldn’t quite put into a description that was quickly overtaking the primal rage.

Maug, eyes still glowing, turned to glare at Susie. “How’s it possible that such a piss-poor excuse for a dragon is his daughter?” he asked as he rubbed his fist, his voice now lacking its past slurring, and instead far more composed than what would be expected of a drunkard. He turned his full attention to his niece. “Yeah, you heard me right! You’re a piss-poor excuse for a dragon! You have no tail, barely any strength, and for fuck’s sake you can’t even breathe fire!”

Susie’s white knuckle fists formed again at her uncle’s accusation. “For your information, asshole, I do know how to breathe fire! I just choose not to because it wastes too much energy. Energy I don’t have because a certain SOMEONE can barely keep the fridge stocked!” she shouted, pointing to the fridge, which had busted open from the earlier rumbling caused by her uncle’s roar and subsequent punch to the wall. “Besides, I easily get heartburn! Why do you think I eat so much chalk in the first place? It’s not because I like the taste!” She grimaced at her words,  _It’s also because I’m fucking hungry most of the time too._

“You still don’t have a tail, you sorry excuse for a drake,” Maug interjected. “To think you would reach your age tailless. If our ancestors heard about that, they would weep!”

Susie glowered. Despite her every instinct telling her to fight back against her uncle’s accusation, she kept quiet, because much as she hated to admit it, he had a good point. She should have grown a tail long before she had even started high school.

Maug continued glaring daggers at Susie. “I should kick your sorry ass out of my house just for being such a failure… but I promised my brother that I’d watch you until you turned 18 if anything ever happened to him.” With another vicious roar, he stomped the ground. “And guess what? SOMETHING FUCKING HAPPENED TO HIM!”

Susie crossed her arms, turned her head, and scoffed in response to her uncle. “Like I wanted to be stuck in this dump being ‘cared’ for by a loser like you!”

Maug gave Susie a deep and dark glare. “I may be a loser... but at least I’m not a murderer,” he softly yet menacingly stated.

Susie’s eyes grew to the size of tea plates, her arms unfolding and dropping to the side as the very air in her lungs left her, leaving her feeling as if she had just taken a punch to the stomach.

Maug hissed and turned away from Susie, all the while snarling in rage.

Susie took a step forward. “W-what did you say?” she asked, her voice just barely holding together from the mixture of wrath and horror she felt filling her being.

Maug turned took a step forward. “How many times must I tell you this shit. You’re the reason my two best friends and family is dead!”

Susie tilted her head downward, her eyes falling on the floor. Of all the insults her uncle had ever used over the years, this one always hurt the most. It never failed to get her feeling like an utter piece of garbage.

Maug pointed at Susie. “If you hadn’t been distracting them on the road that night... If you hadn’t been there… if you...” He put a hand over his eyes, his fangs still barred, but the sound escaping his lips less of a growl or snarl, and more of a slow, mournful whine.

Susie, despite having years of practice at it, still had to fight hard to keep the tears that had formed in her eyes from flowing down her cheeks.

“Why did YOU have to be there?” Maug suddenly demanded, his voice raised several decibels higher than before. “Why did you live when the two of them died!?” he roared, fire forming on his snout. “WHY!?!?” he shrieked at the top of his lungs.

Susie could feel the very warmth in her whole body leave her, an intense chill taking its place. Memories of that awful night began playing back in her mind, memories that she had tried so desperately to suppress, but would always come back to haunt her at the worst of times.

Susie fought against the memories...

Memories of that car ride. Memories of the laughter of her parents as she told them about the friends made at her new school. Memories of how everyone had loved the white ribbon her mother had given her back in elementary school. Memories of how she had not just seen a real-live human but had actually started befriending them. Memories of her parent’s surprise at the news and how happy it had made her. Memories of the sudden change in atmosphere as a bright light suddenly illuminated the inside of the car. Memories of the screams as her father turned to face the road just as the light got brighter and brighter. Memories of the darkness that followed as the sounds of shattering glass and twisting metal. Memories of waking covered with bruises and cuts, covered in broken glass and an ashy powder. Memories of the overwhelming heat of the burning wreckage that had once been her family’s car. Memories of seeing her father lying not far from her, half his body missing as he slowly began fading to dust. Memories of his strained words as he held onto her hand all the while speaking those words as he slowly disappeared into dust...

The dam finally broke as tears of sorrow and anger began flowing from Susie’ eyes.  _Why does it still hurt so much? Why can’t I move on!?_

Maug, disgusted by the sight in front of his eyes, turned away from Susie. “You don’t deserve to cry for them, you murdering bitch,” he hissed through clenched fangs, his eyes distant and hard. “Get out of my sight before I decide to bury my fist into your face!”

Susie gave her uncle a meek nod as she turned and began heading up to her room. With every step, her mind raced through the same thoughts that would always get pulled out of their dark recesses by Maug.  _All my damn fault. I killed them._ She bit her lip as she opened the door to her room. _I'm scum. I’m filth. I don’t deserve happiness. I don’t deserve love._  She closed the door and slumped against it.  _No love for me. No love. No love..._ She let herself slide into the floor as she put her hands on her face, buried her head on her knees, and let the darkness claim her.  _No love..._

At that moment, Susie didn’t care about anything anymore. She shut out the world around her and let herself drift away, her eyelids growing heavier by the second…

Susie snapped her head up in reply to what she could have sworn had been a voice. She looked around her room but spotted nothing. As she scanned her surroundings, her eyes fell on her old and beaten dresser, the side with the missing door revealing the outfit she had gone out of her way to buy the afternoon prior. _T_ _hat’s for…_  she thought to herself, at once remembering what she had planned that evening.

Susie’s will collapsed just as quickly as it had started filling, however. “I don’t deserve to go,” she told herself. “Murderers don’t get to attends formal outings.” She sighed and dug her head between her knees again.

Darkness greeted her once again, and this time she was more than ready to welcome it. But as her consciousness again began fading into the blissful mercy of the dark, something appeared from that murk.

 

The voice echoed in the void, leading her sight towards a speck of light that, at first, faintly shimmered in the black. As Susie focused more and more on it, it grew in intensity. Before long, the light had become a pillar of pure white, shooting up above into the endless void. It took her a second to recognize it as looking like the fountain from the Dark World. Yet, it was so different, its shine warm in comparison to the one she and Kris had closed 4 days earlier. She reached out for it. The light was so familiar, so comforting. It filled her whole being with a drive she had thought all but lost thanks to her uncle.

Susie’s eyes shot open as she stood up. “Okay, what the hell?!” she asked in bewilderment. “What kind of strange-ass dream was that!?” she asked to herself. More importantly, she wondered just how long she had drifted off for. A look at her flip gone told her she hadn’t been sleeping for more than 30 minutes.

As she put her phone away and set her eyes again on the outfit she had spent an entire afternoon trying to buy, the sensation of a fire in her chest grew. Whether dream or not, the voice had a good point. Shit happened, her parents died, and she lived. She wasn’t to blame for that terrible night; she had suffered just as much from it as her uncle.

"Uncle Maug..." Susie whispered.

For the last 5 years, Susie had known that Maug had hated her. He had done everything in his power to strip away all her happiness to the best of his abilities. The constant berating, insults, attacks to her very character. He had starved her, neglected her, and, perhaps worst of all, had convinced her that she was to blame for that terrible accident that night. Even after 5 years, he still lived with the misery of that night, never once giving himself a chance to heal and move on, instead of using it as an excuse for the vices that had come to consume him; all the while allowing his life to crumble around him and drag down anyone unfortunate enough to be near him.

Susie gritted her teeth.  _How could I have been so god damned blind and STUPID?_  she asked herself. The more she really thought about it, the more it all started making sense. All that anger, all that hatred... it hadn’t even been her’s, to begin with.

Susie put a hand on her chest.  _All of that… and I was taking out on other—on Kris..._  she solemnly thought.  _Things are different though,_  she quickly told herself. She had been through a life-changing journey with the boy that had shown her that she could trust in others and open up to heal. He was waiting for her even now, hand extended, ready to help her rise from the depths of her very special kind of hell.

Susie closed her eyes and thought back to the things her father had told her as he lay dying on that lonely road 5 years ago. Words that, despite being taken from an old song, hadn’t made sense to her then. Now, they spoke louder than anything else in the world: “Susie, when you grow up, will you be the savior of the beaten and the damned? Defeat them, your demons and all the doubters. Don't forget... You are... wonderful...”  
  
Susie snapped her eyes open and felt herself become filled with determination. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—stay in that house and in her uncle's hell any longer.

Without wasting another second, Susie dashed for her backpack. With a single pull, she opened it and began stuffing everything that she could fit into it. By the time she was done the packing, she had a hard time closing the bag. Still, inside was everything that was of value to her. Everything except her old white hair ribbon.

As Susie held the ribbon in her hand, she recalled her mother's kind—albeit toothy—smile. It was almost too much for her, her grip tightening as she fought back the urge to cry for the second time that afternoon.

Susie stuffed the ribbon into her pant pocket, and with the same hand brought out her flip phone. Without wasting more time, she swiftly dialed the one number she knew by heart. She hoped to god or the Angel or whatever other deities that would take pity on her that the call got picked. The dial tone rang for far longer than Susie would have liked before it was answered by the one person that at that moment made her feel ten times livelier.

“Dude? Yes, it’s me, Susie. Listen, I’m having a bit of…uh... trouble... on my end.  
  
“No, it’s nothing Dark World related. And no, it’s not anything that needs you to come over!  
  
“Well, actually…  
  
“C-can… can I come over... to your place?  
  
“Why?  
  
“Uhhhhhh… well… ya see..." Susie brought the phone away from her mouth and sighed. She hated the fact that she had to do this to Kris, but she couldn't just up and say what she actually had planned. Knowing him, he would probably drop whatever he was doing and rush to her aid.

With a bitter swallow, Susie brought the phone back to her lips. “The water in my bath isn’t warming up. Also, I realize I’m out of shampoo! So I’m kinda in need of a place to freshen up and whatnot. Nothing too major, really.  
  
“Why the hell do you sound so shocked? What, you think big bad Susie walks around looking like a mess because she wants to? I kinda live in a dum—" Susie stopped herself from finishing that word. Instead, she let out a growl. “H—hold up, hold up! That’s not what I meant! Don’t go getting any funny ideas!  
  
“Huh? Alright, you got me there..." Susie again lowered the phone and sighed.  _Susie... you'll have to do some extra apologizing for this one..._  she thought to herself as she brought the phone up to her lips yet again. "The truth is, my parents have friends over and are using most of the damn place. Can barely breathe here, it's so crowded! If you really want me to do this dance thing, then it is best if I could get ready somewhere less… crowded.  
  
“Look, are you going to let me come over or what? If you don’t, then this whole damn thing’s off!" Susie felt her heart skip a beat at those words. The last thing she wanted was to blow her once shot at some levity on that awful afternoon.  _And threatening him isn't helping me one bit!_  
  
Susie held her breath as she waited for Kris' answer.

“Y-yes!? Cool! I-I’ll be there soon! Just make sure you don’t go opening the door wearing only a towel, or I swear I’ll deck you so hard that me biting your face off will actually be the pleasurable option!"  _DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD!?_  Susie screamed internally. “…Forget I said that last part or I swear to god... " She grit her teeth, more at herself than at Kris' witty quip over her Freudian slip. "J—JUST BE READY!" she shouted, closing up her phone and ending the call.

Not the smoothest of methods of setting the plan into motion, but Susie had never been one for tact anyway. All that mattered now was that she had a starting point; she could worry about all the finer details as they came up.

Susie took one last look back at the room she would never return to, a pang of sadness going off in her chest at the idea that she had to abandon what had been her sanctum for nearly half a decade. A part of her almost didn’t want to part with it. Who knew if, after tonight, she would ever have any place to really call her own.

Susie shook her head.  _No more hesitation_. It was now or never.

Without another word or thought and with her bag slung over her shoulder, she swung her room’s door open and stormed downstairs. She made it halfway through the living room before Maug showed his face again. As he left the kitchen, had a half-finished bottle of vodka in his hands, his cheeks flushed, and his already red eyes dulled and hazed over. “What the fuck *hic* are you doing down here!?” he slurrily bellowed. “You really want to *hic* get smacked in the face, don’t you!?”

Susie took the deepest breath of air in her whole life as her gaze, sharp and devoid of any delight, fixed itself on her uncle’s own eyes. “You won’t have to worry about me anymore,” she replied coldly. “You win. I’m out of here.”

Maug took another swig of his vodka before tossing the bottle in Susie’s direction. It just barely missed her head, shattering near the front door and spilling all over the room. “Who the fuck do you think *hic* you are, coming down here and talking all ‘big and mighty’?” he asked, walking forward with uneven, yet heavy strides. “You think that just because you're so ‘big and strong’ that you can make it out there on your own!?” he asked, stopping only inches away from Susie’s face. “No one likes you. No one cares about you. Everyone fears you—and they should, you angel-cursed murderer.” Maug lowered his head so that he was eye-to-eye with his niece. “M U R D E R E R.” he whispered, a wide toothy grin slowly forming on his lips.

Susie’s eye twitched as she fought back the desire to punch her uncle. She knew he was far too drunk and probably wouldn’t even remember if she did. Not that he might even feel it, considering how tough he really was.  _I_ _f he doesn't feel it, it's not worth it. Besides, I’m a brand new dragon now. Violence isn’t going to solve all my problems in life,_  she thought to herself. 4 days earlier, she would have never even considered the pacifist option, but now it was at the forefront of her machinations.  _Never would have thought I'd be taking a page out of Ralsei's book._

“Listen here, you son of a bitch" Susie started, her tone grave and direct. "I've lived in this hellhole for 5 years; 5 years putting up with your bullshit! I stuck around 'cus I thought I deserved no better… but I was wrong, and I’m going to prove it!”

Maug’s lips rose into a cruel grin. “You walk out that door, and you will be all alone! You'll have no one left; no home, no family, and with winter rolling around, you'll no even make it to next year!” His eyes hardened and began to glow once again, his voice slowly losing its intoxication as the fire in his belly no doubt burned through the booze. “You. Are. Going. To. Lose. EVERYTHING!” he roared.

Susie swallowed. Her uncle might have been a bastard, but he did speak the truth. Much as she hated to admit it, he was the only thing she really had left in the world now. No real extended family to speak of and very little wealth to her name.

Susie closed her eyes, her resolve wavering.  _He’s wrong though. You’re not alone. You have Kris and Lancer and Ralsei._  She snapped her eyes open and turned away from her uncle’s eyes. “So long, asshole. I really do hope you can forgive me. Or don’t. I honestly don’t give a damn anymore.”

With those words spoken, Susie walked the ten most difficult steps of her life and swung open the front door and stepped out into the dying day.

Maug scowled as he took a step forward, but stopped in his tracks, his hands curling into fists as he continued glaring at the dragon whelp that would soon be her ex-niece. “Just where the hell you think you’re going!?” he bellowed unevenly.

“With luck, forward,” Susie replied without even turning around to face the man that would soon be her ex-uncle.

“You got that response from a fucking movie!!” Maug screamed at Susie, who only replied to his words by flipping him off, once again without so much as giving him a sideways glance.

Maug let out a grumble, but to Susie’s shock, did not follow her out the house. Instead, she only heard a scoff as he shut the front door so hard that she could feel the rumbling under her feet even with the distance she had already put between it and herself. That was followed by what sounded like screams of pure rage and breaking glass from inside the house.

Susie paid that no mind. She only continued moving ahead. As she did, she could feel lingering darkness slowly begin to fade away. Despite facing the most uncertain future any teenager could possibly hope to meet, she couldn’t help but feel relieved.

A smile slowly began forming on the teen's lips as she exited the clearing and found herself in front of the highway leading to and from Hometown. For once, she felt like she was free of burdens. For once, she felt like she could well and truly start to heal.

Without wasting another second, she began down the road back to Hometown, her destination, the house that stood atop the hill.

She looked up at the overcast sky, her eyes once again filling with tears. "I take it back. It's not such a bad afternoon for rain."

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

A presence looked on at the scene from somewhere between the folds of reality and someplace dark.

* * *

* * *

 


	5. PAIN AND SEIZURE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kris has a 'heart to heart' with a demon

* * *

* * *

Kris’ walk home took far longer than usual, his every step slow and thoughtful. If he was honest with himself, he felt like utter garbage.

A part of him still couldn’t believe how bad it all had gone. Sure, he had gotten Noelle to agree to go to the dance with him, but that wouldn't have needed to happen in the first place if he had kept his mouth shut when his mother had asked him about the dance and his 'date.' Now he had two engagements for the same event, and neither knew the full story to begin with.

Kris keened with frustration. 'How am I even going to play this? Am I going to have to play the old two-timer date’ trope?' he asked himself. Somehow—SOMEWAY—he was going to have to find a way to correct everything. If he didn't, it wouldn’t just be Susie's friendship at risking, but Noelle's as well...

The reminder did nothing to ease the teen’s nerves. It only made him feel worse, to the point that his very stomach felt much as it had earlier that very day. Already, he could feel every meal that day clawing their way up his esophagus.

As Kris turned the street corner and set sight on his house, he spotted his adoptive mother just as she stepped out of the house. A somewhat unusual view, as Toriel used the afternoons to catch up on books and corny soap operas, but then he recalled the dance later that night. Since she was a teacher, she probably had a role to play in it. 'Hopefully, not as one of the hawk-wearing chaperones. Though that would be kinda funny,' he mused to himself, happy to have had at least a small bit of levity before the storm that was to come.

Toriel spotted Kris just as he entered his house’s driveway. “Oh, Kris, I was wondering when you would arrive. I was about to give you a phone call. Welcome home, dear!” The fluffy caprine monster raced up to her son and gave him her trademark hug.

As was customary, Kris accepted the embrace. It was one of the few things in his life that had never changed, for better or worse. It also wasn’t like he really had a choice; Toriel was just a hugger. He returned his mother's embrace, welcoming the warming ease it brought, melting away some of his self-inflicted discomforts.

Toriel's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink at her son's sudden show of affection. "Oh, it has been ages since the last time you hugged back!" She chuckled, rubbing her son in the head. "I would ask what has got you feeling so huggy this evening, but seeing as tonight is the dance, my guess is you are feeling nervous, maybe even a bit stage-frightened?"

Kris swallowed and kept his mouth shut. His mother had him sized up pretty well.

“Still, I would not be a good mother if I didn't ask if something is wrong?” Toriel questioned, almost as if she could sense Kris’ unease.

The teen quickly stepped away, breaking the embrace. "J-just butterflies in my stomach!” he replied, all the while rubbing the back of his head. “It's just... making me get lost in my thoughts is all..."

“Oh, and what has got your mind running so much?” Toriel asked, her tone dripping with curiosity.

Kris felt beads of sweat forming in his brow at his mother’s question. For a few long seconds, he actually considered telling the truth; how he had lied the first time about his 'date', how he had gone out of his way into tricking his childhood friend into covering for said 'date', and how despite his every intention to, hadn’t yet told those two just what his real plan had been. 'God... just thinking of it like that makes me feel all filthy,' he thought to himself.

He took a deep breath in preparation for yet another lie. 'I really am an awful person...' “I’m just really nervous! B-because... What if... what if I-I end up liking Noelle? Like, REALLY liking her… as more than just a friend,” Kris replied to his mother’s earlier question. 'I mean... part of that isn't wrong...' Kris reflected. It made his head spin. 'I mean, Noelle and me? She’d probably be better off with Berdly, even if he is annoying as hell. At least he’s smart; he’s going places. I’ll be lucky if I get part-time employment as a janitor...'

Toriel’s eyes lit up at her son’s words. “Oh,” she said, her cheeks again turning a shade of pink. “Well... It is, sometimes, hard to tell when someone likes you. Or, when you like someone. I mean, there are certain signs, yes, but they can be subtle. So subtle, in fact, that we may miss them outright.” She put a hand on her son’s shoulder and gave him a warm smile. “If you really feel like that, then I do not think you have much to be worried about. Your heart will tell you what to do next! Just keep an ear out for it.”

Kris gave his mother a grin but also rolled his eyes at her words, an expression that his hair kept hidden from her. 'Oh, believe me, mom, listening to my heart’s the LAST thing I want to be doing right now,' he mused to himself. Still, Toriel’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the advice wasn’t exactly wrong—if a bit too on the rousseauistic side. Still, it made him wish to somehow take his mother’s positive energy and use it to fuel his own wavering confidence. He had a feeling he would desperately need it as the night went on.

Toriel’s text alarm went off, and she broke away from the moment to look at her phone. Her expression soured a bit as she scrolled through the text bubbles on the screen. “Oh my... I better hurry up,” she said disappointedly, turning back to face her van. “I’ll meet you at the school later.”

Kris snickered. “Let me guess: Ms. Alphys?"

Toriel’s smile dropped a few millimeters. “Yeah, that was Ms. Alphys. She forgot to buy the punch,” she replied with a mix of annoyance and amusement. “Oh, I do hope San’s is still open,” she said as she turned on the van’s engine. “I’ll see you soon then. Bye!” Toriel shouted as the van pulled away from the driveway, the crunch of wheels on asphalt oddly satisfying to Kris. He half-raised his right arm to wave goodbye, but when he noticed that his mother was more than halfway down the street, he decided against it. Somewhat regretfully, he bright his arm back down, berating himself for not being quick enough for his farewell. "Yet another thing I’m going to be regretting for the rest of the night," he told himself.

With a sigh, Kris entered his home. His first stop was by the kitchen to grab a quick snack and a drink of water. He checked to see if there was anything sweet, but as expected, his mother kept all such treats hidden away. He did find some grape jelly and the peanut butter, so he made himself a sandwich. Unfortunately, the result was a bit messy on his hands, so after finishing, he entered the bathroom to wash up.

As Kris turned on the faucet, allowed himself to feel the full weight of all his actions that day. He always asked himself just why he did it. “I mean, there were so many other ways to get out of this mess! I could have lied and told mom that Noelle couldn’t make it, I could have avoided the teachers the whole night and pretended I’d forgotten; hell, I could have just not told mom anything in the first place!” He half-shouted as he looked himself in the mirror, almost as if pleading with the reflection to say anything to get his mind off of things. When that failed, he exhaled, murmured a curse under his breath, and proceeded to wash his hands in utter defeat. A part of him felt as if it was just about ready to snap in frustration.

Kris suddenly felt a sharp pang in the back of his head. He knew the feeling all too well by now.

Kris shook his head to try and clear the ‘voice,’ but it only got louder. He struck his head with his palm a few times in an attempt to dislodge whatever had crawled into his brain, but that only succeeded in sharpening the pain.

“That’s a lie,” Kris riposted to the voice, all the while digging his fingers into the skin over half of his face. 'Why is it now doing this? Why is it so much stronger than ever before?'

Kris gripped his head tighter. “Shut up, you lying... whatever the hell you are!” he hissed through clenched teeth. “You’re just... a figment of my screwed-up mind! So leave me alone...” he shut his eyes and tried his hardest to suppress the voice. At the same time, he came to the horrifying realization that somewhere in its dialogue, it had referred to its actions in the plural form. That only served to convince the teen that the voice wasn’t just some figment of his imagination, but something else that had somehow gained sentience of its own.

“No,” Kris snapped at the voice. “Everything’s going wrong! Instead of fixing my stupid mistake, I’ve gone and made it worse! And all because I couldn’t bring myself to tell Noelle the truth!”

Kris couldn't contain the rage bubbling in him the instant those words echoed in his mind. He curled his free hand into a white-knuckled fist, and without wasting another second, punched himself across the face with enough force to make himself see a few stars in the periphery of his vision. He readied himself to lunch another blow, but he found his arm frozen in place, almost as if some invisible hand had just grabbed it.

Kris’ entire body seized up. Suddenly, he felt as if something else was forcing itself onto his very muscles, prompting movement that he struggled against, but ultimately couldn't stop. As he tried his hardest to keep his limbs locked in place, he could feel his sinews stretch, his bones twist, and his bones crack as the pain quickly made his head go light and his vision haze over.

Little by little, Kris’ right arm forced its way towards the mirror cabinet. He was able to push his body back one last time before the other presence forcefully shoved him forward, causing his stomach to smash against the sink, knocking the air right out of him. He was barely able to keep his eyes open and clear of tears as he noticed his arm, now under the control of some dark external will, swinging open the cabinet door and reach for a pair of steel hair scissors.

Kris’ left arm flopped on top of the sink's surface, the hand turning until the palm was facing upwards. The right hand tightly gripped on to the scissors, sharp end pointed directly down and at the open palm.

Kris' eyes widened as he desperately tried to regain control over his limbs, trashing from side to side in desperation, teeth bared and clenched so tight that their scrapping was as loud as nails on a chalkboard. Before the teen had a chance to continue his struggle, his right arm plunged downward.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Kris shouted, forcing just enough movement from his body to move his left hand out of the path of the strike. The scissors were flung out of Kris’ hand as the limb made an impact with the hard angled edge of the sink.

"GAAAAAA!!!" Kris screamed as he looked at his right hand. More than half became swollen, his pinky and ring fingers bent upwards and backward and the rest of his hand sporting a large scrape across the upper palm, blood already finding its way out of the multiple spots of scrapped-off flesh.

Kris felt utterly broken. Half of him felt hazed and dazed, almost as if he was suffering from a concussion. The headache threatening to blow his head open alone was enough to make him wish for the sweet embrace of oblivion. The other half of his being was wreathed in agony the likes of which he never had before experienced, his every nerve alight in constant acute pain. Somewhere down the middle, the two sensations met, enhancing the feelings in some places and almost canceling it out in others.

As the teen's mind tried to piece together some kind of practical reality, the dark presence of that other side began to materialize in the mirror itself, takin on the very image of Kris himself.

The figure in the mirror's eyes glowed like orbs of fire. Their very heat fell on Kris, almost as if they were beams of sunlight focused through a magnifying glass.

The entity laughed.

Kris couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He almost chalked it up to his addled, pain-stricken perception. ‘This has to be some kind of nightmare,’ he thought to himself.

Kris tried to shake his head, but he found he couldn’t even do that without further increasing the agony in his body.

The entity's lips rose into a cruel grin.

The eyes of the other Kris in the mirror grew larger, brighter, and hotter.

Having finally regained control over most of his body, Kris grabbed onto his head with his left hand and desperately shook it, breathing shallowly and rapidly as he tried to force the dark voice out of his mind as he had done yesterday when it had wanted to harm Noelle. But no matter how hard he struggled, it was not working. The voice wasn’t going anywhere and only seemed to grow louder and more overbearing with every passing second.

Kris’ splitting headache only continued to worsen. It got to the point that he felt just about ready to pass out from the agony. The only thing that still kept him awake and relatively aware of his surroundings was the burning pain radiating from his right hand.

Once more, Kris felt the overwhelming feeling of the muscles in his arms obeying a command that wasn’t his. His right arm lifted upward, his crippled hand spreading outwards, the broken fingers just barely moving as the pain only intensified. The blood that was present had started to dry, but there were so many scrapes present that the whole hand looked red as a tomato. For the first few seconds, he wondered just what his other twisted version of himself had planned, but his question was quickly answered when he felt a great heat begin exuding from his very body. It almost felt as if he was slowly being lowered into a vat full of boiling water. Steam started rising from the injured hand as he began to fear that at any second, his very skin would begin to melt like fat on a raging fire.

But that never happened. Much to Kris’ shock, the steam rising from his hand began easing the swelling on his palm. What was more, the scrapes and cuts began to close, the damaged skin repairing itself before his very eyes. Even the burning pain began to ease as the two twisted fingers on his hand began to return to their standard coloration. The left hand then reached out to grab the two fingers, and with a quick pull, snapped the fingers out of their twisted position and back into their original sockets. The crunch was sickening, but there was no pain. When the left hand retreated, he saw that his right hand now looked no worse than when he had come home minutes earlier. As if to add further proof of the miraculous repair, the hand opened and closed itself several times, every motion with nary a single feeling of discomfort.

“How did you...” Kris started, but his words trailed off as he felt another sharp stab coming from his head.

Kris again struggled, bringing his recently freed hand over his right eye and pushing against it in an attempt to stem the flow of pain. It had minimal effect as the teen's very sight began to tint red.

At last, Kris fell on a knee, his body too exhausted to keep itself aloft. Little by little, he could feel his very sentience slip away as the red coloration began taking everything from him. Despite everything now happening to him, he couldn’t help but have his final thoughts be about Susie and Noelle, and just what kind of horrible fate he had allowed upon them by losing himself to the demon now claiming his soul...

Kris snapped his eyes open. The red tint on his vision was gone, and so was the majority of the pain in his head. He still struggled to stand, his muscles feeling as if they had just finished a full triathlon. He wheezed, bringing his two arms up, fearful at first that at any second, they might snap and wrap their fingers around his neck. But as he stretched and contracted his digits on command, he realized he had regained full control.

Kris looked up at the mirror and saw nothing there save his own defeated reflection, with bloodshot eyes, pale skin, wet and ruffled hair, and so much sweat that he looked as if freshly exited from a swimming pool.

A new voice suddenly echoed within Kris' mind.

At first, Kris flinched in response to the new voice now echoing through his head, but after a few seconds of silence, he quickly realized the tone was far different from that of the previous mental assailant.

Kris let himself lean against the bathroom door. “...No...” he barely managed to gasp out. "I... thought... I was... about to... die..."

  


The voice went quiet again for a second.

  
  


Kris shook himself off and considered his options. He still wasn’t 100% sure about what had just happened, only that it had someone caused him the greatest deal of pain in his life. His body still felt weary, his every muscle aching and sore. As much as he would have loved to pretend everything had just been some very vivid hallucination, denying it was all but impossible.

With no real choice in the matter, Kris slowly made his way out of the bathroom and up the stairs. His legs barely wanted to move, every step sending ripples of anguish throughout his body. By the time he reached the door to his room, he felt ready to fall into a deep repose. But considering the commitment had made with both Susie and Noelle, that wasn't an option, especially now, with the terrifying prospect that whatever had just attacked him could take over his body over while he slept.

Kris reached out and turned the doorknob. The instant the door swung open, he bathed by a soft and warm crimson light. Unlike all the other times the soul decided to make itself known, the luminosity felt different this time. It felt stronger, almost solid, the warmth somehow able to pierce right through his skin. The heat made his skin crawl at first, but that soon changed when he noticed that unlike the earlier sensation, which had felt akin to being lit in flames, the soul’s light was soothing. It eased the lingering soreness on his body and near completely obliterated his headache. 'It almost feels like touching one of the springs of light back in the dark world,' Kris told himself.

“...What are you...?” Kris wound up asking, his eyes set on the organ inside the cage.

  


Kris closed his door and set his full attention back to the heart. “Okay... I’m here.” His brow furrowed. “You better have something good to tell me, or I’m flushing you down the toilet.”

  
  
  


He was about to retort, but Kris found himself pausing. As much as he hated to admit it—and he did hate it; loathed it, even—the heart had a point. That other him; that demon that bore his face... it had tried to take him over. It had come damn close too.

Kris groaned and rolled his eyes. “Point taken,” he said, walking up to his bed and taking a seat. “Still, don’t expect our relationship to change. Far as I'm concerned, you’re also a potential threat to me, seeing as you have already used me like a puppet.”

  
  


“Oh yeah, how so?”

  
  
  
  
  


Kris let out a snort and raised a hand. “Alright, alright,” he responded, still shooting the heart a nasty glower. “For the time being, I’m going to believe you aren’t out to make my life hell. Still, that doesn’t explain how you are able to do... well, EVERYTHING. How are you even here now? How can a human soul continue to exists without a body? Just what kind of connection do you have with that demonic... thing... inside of me?” the teen again grimaced. “That thing... spoke of DETERMINATION, and how it has always been inside me! How I awakened it and how it wanted nothing but to win regardless of the costs!” he put a hand over his face. “Just what the actual hell is... going on...?”

The heart kept eerily quiet. Had it had a face, it likely would have been staring at the floor of its cage.

Kris, feeling anger surging through his being, narrowed his eyes as he grabbed the wagon the cage was sitting on and wheeled it closer to him. “All of this hell started the day YOU showed up. Since then, you’ve been nothing but cryptic about things, and I’m sick of it.” He grabbed the cage with both hands, his face coming within an inch of the rusty metal bars. “I don’t want any more mysterious bullshit. I want answers!”

There was more silence between the two. Seconds turned to minutes as the human teenager kept his glare on the heart, which just floated there as if frozen, its glow just as bright, yet its sentience seemingly having left it.

Kris scoffed and backed away from the cage. “Of course you give the silent treatment. What else should I expect from a parasite?”

The heart quickly replied. Kris again turned his full attention to it.

  
  
  
  


Kris was taken aback by the heart’s tone. For one thing, it was far softer than its previous voice, its volume and timbre more akin to something he would have heard from Ralsei or his brother. But perhaps more important than that was the fact that the soul had just used his name, something it had never done before.

Somehow, that fact unnerved Kris greatly.

Kris was, naturally, confused by the statement. “Timeline?” he asked. “You mean, like, 'past-present-future' stuff?”

Much to Kris’ continued shock, the heart let out a gentle chuckle.

  
  


Kris only looks on at the heart with a quizzical expression, almost as his brain was working double-time to try and figure out some kind of meaning.

  
  


Kris put a hand on his chin. “I’ve heard of that before from Ms. Alphys.”

“Well,” Kris started, “Ms. Alphys brought it up because of an episode of ‘The Symptoms’ she wouldn’t shut up about in class. It was the one where Hober—the idiot dad in the show—gets sent to a parallel world and meets his alter ego, who just so happens to be super smart.”

  
  


Kris nodded. “Alphys then went on and on about how the episode revolved around keeping the ‘prime’ reality safe from some time-eating entity, or something like that. I kinda started losing track of things when Susie loaned me the comic she had been using to keep entertained.”

  
  


“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kris asked.

  
  
  
  
  


“Are you saying that...”

Kris felt a sudden shiver run down his spine. He couldn’t really understand why though. It was almost as if some instinctual part of him was reacting on pure instinctual dread.

  
  
  


Kris didn’t know much about the subject of the old war, but he knew enough. How could he not, when he lived in the aftermath of that great conflict fought so long ago that it was more legend than history at this point?

Kris looked down at the floor, his already long hair falling over and further shrouding his face. “The war happened. Humans lost it thanks to the Angel..." Kris could feel what he could only describe as instinctual anger filling his being. “Humans... were practically driven extinct. I don’t know the rest, only that the survivors either integrated into monster society or went into hiding, never to be seen again.” He set his eyes on the soul trapped in the cage. “As a result, humans—pure humans—are rare. I’ve never met another. For all I know, I could be the only human for thousands of miles around.”

  
  
  


Kris only looked on blankly at the cage. For a second, he wondered just what kind of world the heart had come from. Was it one where the inverse had happened, and humans were the dominant race? Was it one where both humans and monsters had found some way to prevent the war? Or was it one where neither race existed? He would be lying if he had said his interest hadn’t been peeked by the possibility of knowing about that other world. Assuming the heart wasn’t lying.

Before Kris could form the question in his tongue, however, his phone began ringing. He reached out for it and looked at the caller ID:

Susie

Kris had almost forgotten what about her and what he needed to do. Had events not been in motion so far along as they were, he would cancel everything and stay home to try and not only piece together all the information he had just learned, but also ask more about that other world.

Kris snapped himself from his thoughts and picked up the call. “Hey, Susie. What’s up?” he asked in his smoothest voice possible, though keeping his voice even was proving a tad more difficult than anticipated.

Kris’ coloration again turned pale as he heard Susie’s words through the small phone speaker. “T-trouble? Like, what kind of trouble!?” he asked, in his mind already picturing the demonic entity somehow having turned its wrath on Susie. He considered asking her directly if she had been attacked by the same entity that had assaulted him, but after giving it some more thought, decided to be more tactful. “Is it in any way Dark World related?”

Susie near instantly replied. Kris sighed when he heard that it wasn’t anything too significant. But just as suddenly as his nerves had been put to ease, they were once again set to high alert when Susie all of a sudden asked if she could come over to his place.

“W-why?” Kris asked. “N-not that I’m against it! Just a bit... confused is all.”

Kris heard the reason Susie gave him for wanting to come over. Somehow, it didn’t quite sound like something she would be concerned over. Sure, the dance was as formal an event as it would get outside of prom, but he doubted that a lack of shampoo and cold water would hinder the dragon much.

There was more to it, and Kris was not going to be taking any chances tonight. “Susie, are you sure everything’s okay on your end? You can’t tell me you want to come over just because of too little shampoo and water that's too cold!”

Kris had to move the phone away from his ear to avoid Susie’s suddenly raised voice. As she shouted at him about the situation, he couldn’t help but wonder if there really was nothing wrong as she claimed. Then again, it had only been 4 days since he had gotten to really know her. There was still so much mystery surrounding the dragon that he honestly had no place to judge.

“Susie, lying isn’t your strong suit. You’re far too straightforward for that,” Kris said, a smile forming on his lips. "Just... tell me what's wrong. Please."  
  
Susie agreed on the other end of the line. After a sigh, she told Kris the real reason she needed to come over. Something about it still didn’t quite add up, but the explanation was a hell of a lot more airtight than before. Hell, if he had been in a similar position as she was in, he too would seek out sanctuary elsewhere. Though, the only person that he knew would agree to it, albeit in her usual flustered manner, would be Noelle. ‘Although, the last time I used her bathroom was when I was eleven during a sleepover. Would be awkward now that we are teenagers,’ he thought to himself.

Kris almost didn’t notice that he had left Susie hanging on the line without any response. Only when she angrily asked him if he was going to agree did he snap back to reality. To make matters even tenser, she pretty much threatened to call off everything if he didn’t agree.

The threat not only gave Kris pause, but it also made his heart skip a beat. Sure, the idea of Susie canceling on him wasn’t exactly a bad thing, considering everything that had occurred that afternoon. For all he knew, the demonic entity—or whatever it was—could attack Susie while he wasn't there, and he would be damned if he let harm fall on who was arguably his best friend.

Kris was forced to agree with the soul for lack of real knowledge. Still, it wasn’t an easy sell for himself.

  
  


Kris gazed at the heart, and the heart, despite lacking visible eyes, seemed to also be looking back at the teen. ‘Here’s hoping I’m not making a big mistake...’

Kris brought the phone back to his lips and, with a deep breath, gave Susie his answer. “Yes. You can come over and use my shower.”

Kris let out a deep breath and again looked at the heart. Somehow, it felt as if the heart’s radiance had increased just a bit more. ‘I wonder if that’s how they smile, or something along those lines,’ Kris mused as he heard Susie tell him that she would be there soon and how she did not want him to open the door only wearing a towel, or she would deck him so hard that her biting his face off would actually be the pleasurable option.

“Uhhhh... what was that last part?” Kris asked Susie in disbelief.

Susie quickly stammered out a response, a threat, and promptly hung the phone, all in a rapid-fire fashion that left Kris little chance to say anything else.

Kris groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thanks for reminding me,” he told the heart. He honestly could already feel the well-earned punch from Susie coming his way. It wasn’t like he hadn’t earned it for his stupidity in the first place. Still, he was sure that if anyone could not only understand his situation but possibly even help him with it, it was Susie. ‘I just hope we can laugh about this once it’s all over,’ he thought to himself.

“Why?” Kris asked, consciously ignoring the fact that the heart had read his mind, as he could feel another shiver run down his spine just based on his earlier words.

  
  


“Is that the reason you told me, and I quote, ‘go to the dance, and ask her to the dance’?”

  
  
  
  
  
  


“What do you mean?”

  


Kris again put a hand over his face. “Great, yet another reason to hate my choices as of late,” he groaned.

  
  


Kris gave the heart a narrowed glare. “That’s easy for you to say. You aren’t the one who has to find a way to fix this mess.”

  
  
  
  
  


Kris swallowed hard soon as he took those words in. The soul’s tone was far more somber than ever before. It wasn’t doing him any favors in easing his mind.

  
  
  
  
  
  


“What are you getting at?” Kris asked.

  


Kris again narrowed his eyes. “Oh, I get it. I see where you’re taking this,” he started, his brow crumpling as he took a step away from the cage. “The answer is still no!” he shouted, kicking the cage once to demonstrate his point.

  
  
  


Kris scoffed and turned away from the heart. “I am not going to be anyone’s puppet again!”

  
  
  
  


“No!” Kris shouted at the top of his lungs. “Never. Again.” he hissed through clenched teeth as he again turned to face the cage. “I’ll keep control over myself! I’ll fight this demon raging in me! I’ll prove to you and anyone else who thinks otherwise THAT MY CHOICES MATTER!” he bellowed, all the while reaching for a spare bedsheet over his bed. “So just sit there and watch me!” he snarled, tossing the sheet over the cage, covering it and its light entirely.

Without another word, Kris walked to his closet, gathered the clothes he would need for the coming night, and prepared to exit his room. As he did, he shot the now covered cage one last glance before opening his door.

The heart started, its tone soft and almost meek.

  
  
  
  
  


Kris stopped in his tracks. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. “And... why does it sound so... familiar?”

The heart gently chuckled.

  
  


The heart’s glow began to fade from under the covers.

Kris turned back around and tried to ignore the heart’s words, but after everything he had endured, he was having a tough time willingly doing that.

With another shake of his head, the teen shut the door to his room and headed downstairs. He had a lot of preparation to do for the coming evening, and the less time he spent thinking on more cryptic words, the better.

 

* * *

* * *


	6. FADED RECOLLECTION

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being accidentally knocked out, Kris has a very strange and very vivid memory of a different place and time.

* * *

* * *

It had taken Susie considerably longer than she would have liked to get back to Hometown.  
  
Usually, the walk didn’t take long, especially if the pace was swift and without pause. But after what Susie had done just minutes earlier, her sluggish and thoughtful pace might as well have been a dash. A part of her still couldn’t believe what she had done. After years of being held down by an alcoholic piece of filth of an uncle, to finally be free from his grip was intoxicating. So much so that she wished she could maintain the feeling for the rest of her life. But a part of her mind told her that much difficulty awaited in the future now that she had no home to go back to and no family to call her own. Her uncle’s vile words still echoed in the back of her mind, his words slowly but relentlessly eroding at her newfound willpower.  
  
As Susie looked back at the street leading out of town, she felt a pang of dread in her chest. She still had to break the news to Kris. This got her worried, as the news wouldn’t exactly be seen as ‘great’ from his or his mother’s point of view. ‘What if Kris is angry because I lied to him? What if he...’ she swallows hard and takes several short but deep breaths to try and relax. In the past, she had lied without giving it much thought or emotion. She was a cheat that often thrived from being deceitful and violent, and she often loved it; she should have been more than used to it by now.  
  
So why did it feel so wrong all of a sudden?  
  
“Things... are different now,” Susie whispered as she readjusted the backpack on her shoulder and continued moving forward. She clenched her right hand so tight that she could almost feel her claws piercing the skin on her palm. ‘No turning back now,’ she thought to herself, anger still very much present in her heart despite her best attempts to suppress it. She gritted her teeth and growled. ‘What the hell is happening to me? God dammit, why did I even choose today of all days to have my little freedom outburst?’ she thought. Second—even third—thoughts forming in the back of her mind with every step forward. ‘Not only do I still have to deal with the dance, but I also have to find some way to tell Kris the truth.’ Susie’s coloration turned a shade paler. ‘I also have to ask. No, BEG, for his help. I... have no one else to turn to in this damn town.’ For the first time since leaving her house, she strongly considered trying to find some way to convince Kris to call off the dance. Sure, that meant also losing any possible chance of finding a Dark World portal, but there would be other opportunities. ‘Right?’ she asked herself. The dragon's brow furrowed in reply to the question. ‘Nah. I can’t—WON’T—chicken out. I mean, I can’t even imagine what kind of balls Kris had to grow to even consider asking me to do this in the first place!’ She felt her cheeks burn at the thought. ‘Guy’s got a lot more guts than I originally gave him credit.’  
  
A warm smile formed on Susie’s lips at those thoughts. Kris might have used the Dark World excuse to get her to agree to the dance, but deep down, she knew the real truth, she had just tried to convince herself otherwise by going along with his plan. Admitting it was hard enough, however, as it made her head feel light as a balloon. She honestly couldn’t even imagine what Kris must have been feeling when he made his move on Thursday. The more the dragon thought about it though, the more she came to a realization that just hours earlier, she would have punched herself in the face for even considering:  
  
“I... like Kris. Like, I REALLY like him!” Susie breathlessly told herself. She couldn’t think of anyone aside from her parents who had ever found a way to make her feel like she was worth a damn in the world. Even if the two teens had just barely gotten to really know each other, she already felt as if Kris could be trusted with her life. ‘And the truth is, I really might have to put that trust to the test real soon.'  
  
A sense of dread settled in the pit of Susie's gut. For the next few minutes, the teen let her mind go blank of anything besides her essential life functions and walking. By the time her mind had again returned to the here and now, she was standing in the driveway of the Dreemurr residence.  
  
The sense of dread only intensified at the sight.  
  
As the dragon stood facing the door to her friend’s home, she couldn’t help but begin feeling cold feet. Whereas other girls her age might be bouncing around at the prospect of having a fun night of dancing, she could only feel anxiety for what was to come. It made her feel ill and vulnerable, triggering deep draconic instincts of self-protection that she had worked so hard to try and keep suppressed for the good of all around her. As she brought her hand up to knock, her mind raced through hundreds of possible outcomes, all the while she debated just how to best to knock on the door. ‘Should I be gentle? Should I just bang on it as hard as I can? Should I use the doorbell? Should I call Kris on his phone and not even bother knocking?’ She bit her bottom lip as she tried—and failed—to have her mind settle on something; anything.  
  
It took Susie nearly 5 minutes to come up with a plan of action, and when she finally did act, she opted to pound on the door with all her might, her fist hitting against the wood with such force that she could see it bend and shake to avoid breaking. When at last she was done beating on the door, she readied her bag and waited to be greeted by Ms. Toriel. The prospect greatly unnerved her as she wasn’t exactly popular with the teacher. Or any teacher, for that matter. As a bully, she couldn’t help but feel some pride at that fact. At the same time though, some old piece of her—back when she had tried to be a good kid—told her not to feel so prideful about essentially being a thug.  
  
When the door did open, it was Kris, and not Ms. Toriel, who greeted the dragon. He had a towel over his shoulders, his hair damp and unkempt, but he otherwise looked to be more than halfway done dressing. Already, he sported a pair of onyx pants and shiny dress shoes, and an undershirt, which was the only thing keeping his bare chest from being exposed to the elements. He smelled of apple and cologne, the aromas blending so strongly with each other that Susie momentarily forgot what fresh air was. As her eyes scanned Kris, she found herself wishing she had at least bothered with a towel washing before storming out of her house. For the first time in her life, she was feeling very much self-conscious about her appearance.  
  
“Susie! I-I wasn’t expecting y-you... I-I-I mean, I’m sh-shocked... t-that you're... here! Th... that’s what I mean! Th-that you’re here so... early!” Kris began mumbling, his tone as casual as he could make it despite the butterfly swarm raging in his stomach. He was having a tough time trying to keep his whole face from going bright red.  
  
Susie, for her part, swallowed the biggest lump that had ever formed in her throat and gave the human the biggest and toothiest smile she could, her mouth wavering ever so slightly as she attempted to create a reply to Kris’ greeting. ‘Come on, you stupid dragon, don’t just stand there like a moron, do something!' she berated herself.  
  
Despite her best attempts, Susie could only form a single word reply to Kris: “Hi...”  
  
Kris stood at the door in a state of dumbfoundedness before he realized just what kind of situation he was in, at which point he cleared his throat and moved aside. “I-I-I’m... s-sorry! Please, co-come in!” Kris stammered, just barely managing to keep his last few words from cracking under the anxiety of having a lady over to at his house. While he was alone. And half-naked. He swallowed hard. Despite everything that had happened over the last 5 days, he still couldn’t believe where he was and what he was doing right now. To think that the sight before his eyes would have been all but unfeasible last week. The closest place he could have hoped to see the event now unfolding before his eyes would have been in a dream, and he was pretty sure that dream would have ended with his face bitten off.  
  
Susie, for her part, wasn’t doing any better. She just stood there, frozen in place much like a Noelle would when anything remotely threatening happened around her vicinity. Her face felt hot, and her eyes couldn’t snap away from Kris’s body. ‘Common Sus, ya got this. Ya got this!’ she furiously told herself, cold beads of sweat forming on her brow as she took in every inch of Kris’ exposed yellow skin. ‘Just take a step forward and get inside the damn house before anyone sees this.’  
  
It was no use. Despite Susie’s best effort to get her body to move forward, she continued her best impression of a rock.  
  
‘Goddammit, stop making yourself look like a dumbass!’ Susie furiously berated herself. ‘How hard is it to move your damn legs!?’  
  
Kris and Susie continued staring at each other for a minute straight. Through to the pair, that time felt as if it was being multiplied by a factor of a hundred, each second painfully dragging on, turning what should have been over in a mere instant into an ordeal of pure, unadulterated awkwardness that might very well cause both teens to drop dead from heart failures.  
  
After realizing that their impromptu staring contest could well last the whole night, Kris—having finally steeled his resolve to the best that his teenage body and mind could—readied himself to break the metaphorical glacier between himself and Susie. “Hey! A-are you o—”  
  
Before Kris could finish his words, Susie instinctively closed her eyes, raised her fist, and with the fury that only a hormonally charged and emotionally unstable dragon could achieve, unleashed a punch directed square at the human’s forehead.  
  
Kris was catapulted back at least 5 feet, his body becoming airborne for a glorious three seconds before coming back down to earth and crashing right on top of the poor and unprepared recliner chair affectionately known as Chairiel. Despite the forces at play, Chairiel miraculously stood its ground, only skidding back a centimeter, absorbing the full energy of Kris’ weight like a real champ.  
  
Before he had even hit Chairiel, Kris’ entire world had gone very, VERY dark, very VERY fast...

  
-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

  
...

  
There was a strange hum coming from the darkness...

  
...

  
There was a presence somewhere in the void, unseen by all, yet itself able to see clearly in the murk.

  
...

  
Kris couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t move a single part of his body, for no matter where he looked, he couldn’t see his person. The only thing that told him that he still had a body was his own staggered breathing echoing through the endless void.

  
  


  
“An... ending?” Kris liplessly whispered in reply to the voice. “Am I... dead?” he asked, his non-existent breathing grew more and more raspy with every passing second.

  
  
  
  


  
Kris was left with more questions than answers. Who was this voice speaking to him from the dark? Why was he in a formless void without the ability to see his own body? Why had Susie punched his lights out? Too many questions for the teenager’s mind to handle all at once.  
  
“What happened to me?” Kris asked the void the first coherent question that popped into his head.

  
  


  
Kris didn’t need to ask the void just how he had been rendered unconscious. Despite the seeming lack of a physical body in the vacuum, he could still feel some residual pain coming from where his forehead would have been. “Why did Susie punch me?” he blurted out before he could get his thoughts fully in order.

  
  
  


There was a low ominous chuckle.

  
  
  
  


  
There was a long, chilly silence for a moment.

  
  
  


  
Kris was left mute by those words. It wasn’t the first time he had heard someone else refer to Susie in such a way, as the heart had said something similar. He would have almost believed the voice in the dark, and the heart in the cage was one and the same had it not been for the fact that unlike the heart, the tone of voice coming from the void was vastly different.  
  
The heart’s voice was young, sometimes even teen-like, whereas the voice in the void articulated itself in an old and withered method. The heart’s voice had a substantial and androgynous quality that leaned a bit towards the feminine, whereas the voice in the void was unmistakably deep and masculine, with an ethereal quality, and aloof aura, and a very clinical method of vocalization.  
  
Yet, despite the two voices being so vastly different, Kris still couldn't help but feel some kind of link between them...

  
  


  
“What are you talking about?” Kris asked, a chill running down his currently non-existent spine.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
“What kind of... test?” Kris asked, a part of him already dreading whatever answer the voice would give.

  
  
  


  
Kris has no idea what the voice was going on about, but he could feel a burgeoning sense of dread at the words. He couldn’t help but wonder if the ‘fragment’ the voice spoke of was referring to that other demonic version of him that had nearly possessed him. Maybe it was even about the heart itself, though that made little sense since the heart wasn’t a part of him in the first place. Though, if what they had said earlier about being from another timeline was true, then maybe there could be some kind of link.  
  
‘No, this is too much,’ Kris thought as he came to the conclusion that he wanted nothing to do with all the metaphysical business being presented to him. “I don’t want to be part of some ‘test.’ I want to go back to MY reality! I want to back to what I know! I... I...”  
  
There was another soft chuckle.

  
  


  
Kris nodded his head despite his lack of physicality.

  
  
  
  
  


  
“YES!” Kris shouted instantly, only to stop himself in his tracks as a sharp pang erupted from his immaterial chest. “I-I mean...” He almost stopped breathing as it slowly began to dawn on him just what the voice was telling him. It was the same damnable message that other demonic being had taunted him with, but without the pain clouding his mind and nothing around to distract his thought processes, he was able to see the full picture his actions were painting.

  
  
  


  
As much as Kris desired to refute it, the voice spoke nothing but the truth. There, in some formless void, he was forced to face reality... and he felt ill at the realization dawning on him.

  
  


There was silence for a second before the voice spoke again. Only this time, the void slowly began to grow brighter and brighter, the black transitioning to gray, then to white, and then to an intense brightness that rivaled the sun’s rays.

  
  
  
  


  
There was a loud roaring sound that overpowered Kris’ every sense, forcing him to once again lose all recollection of his surroundings.  
  
When Kris again opened his eyes, he found himself looking down at a pair of yellow-toned hands. For a second, the teen dared to believe he might have woken up from the strange nightmare, only to quickly realize that the hands in front of his eyes opened and closed without his consent. ‘Oh, no. Not this again...’ the teen thought as he strained his mind trying to force some kind of conscious movement, only to be mocked by the fact that not only were his hands acting on their own but so were his eyes, as they scanned surroundings he had never before seen in his life. Adding further to the din of confusion he was experiencing, a familiar yet hated voice sounded in the back of his head.

  
The body’s owner said nothing in reply to the soul’s comment as he continued walking down damp and watery caverns. Kris could see everything the body’s owner could, yet it did nothing to provide a solid answer as to where or when he could be. As he looked around his surroundings, the teen managed to catch a reflective glimpse of the body he was currently looking through thanks to a small puddle of water.  
  
The body Kris was currently a passenger on belonged to a yellow-skinned boy who couldn’t be older than 10. He wore familiar blue clothes that looked to have gotten drenched in water, the purple stripes on the shirt now faded into a color best described as a light mauve. The humidity in the air had also turned the boy’s long brown hair into a wet mop. Kris couldn’t help but feel unease at just how similar in style it was to his own hair, the only difference between his the boy’s being that he kept the front portion short to not obscure his facial features, which were dull and nonchalant.  
  
Even though Kris had no real idea of where the boy was, he could feel his ease during the trek, with nary a sense of lingering trepidation over what awaited ahead. Kris wasn’t sure how, but he could understand the boy’s innermost thoughts, like a voice narrating the ideas out loud to him. In this particular case, the boy’s mind was set on the relief that now that the ‘barrier’ was gone, no monsters would constantly be heckling him every few steps he took. Now, most of the underground’s inhabitants were free to pack their possessions in preparation for the exodus to the surface. Aside from the monsters that preferred the dark, he expected everyone else to be topside within a day or two.  
  
Kris couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of time and place he was looking into. Why had monsters been trapped underground and behind some barrier? Who could be powerful enough to put up a barrier in the first place? And just how had a kid not only broken said barrier, but also ‘saved the world’ as he claimed? The teen would have been lying if he had told the questions weren’t piquing his desire to know more about the timeline, but he had to stay focused on finding some way to break free and return to his own world.

The boy nodded in agreement. In the past, he hadn’t exactly been a fan of sunlight, but after spending so much time away from it, he was more than ready to welcome it. That did make him wonder though, how would monsterkind react to sunlight? Some monsters were old enough to recall what sunshine was—the tortoise Gerson came to mind—but the majority of the others were too young to know the warm caress of the sun’s rays. Would they even be able to handle it without getting sunburnt? Could monsters even get sunburnt?  
  
Kris chuckled to himself. ‘Yeah, monsters do get sunburnt,’ he thought to himself. As he absorbed more of the boy’s previous thoughts, the teen began to wonder if the boy was traveling through the Dark World. ‘I mean, if the sun’s a foreign concept to the monsters in this place, then that would make sense,’ he again thought to himself. Yet, he remembered the mention of a barrier and the underground and not a fountain or a Dark World. ‘Maybe things work differently in other realities?’ he wondered. It certainly was a possibility to consider.

  
_  
  
_

__

  
The boy nodded in response.  
  
Kris turned his full attention back to the boy and soul’s exchange. ‘Frisk,’ he thought to himself. ‘Why did that name sound so… familiar?’

  
_  
  
_

  
The boy nodded yet again.

  
_  
  
_

  
Frisk chucked to himself. At least the need to speak to others was at an all-time low now.  It wasn’t like he didn't know how to talk; he didn’t like to. He much preferred to nod along with what others said. That left him plenty of opportunities to let his actions speak louder than words. It was his specialty, after all.  
  
Kris couldn’t help but nod in agreement with Frisk. Though, to be fair, he had been speaking a heck of a lot more ever since Susie had come into his life. He felt grateful for it too.  

  


  
Frisk stopped in his tracks and pondered the question. The inquiry shouldn’t have meant much. In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure about it either, but with everything that had happened, he just had to be sure. Something in his gut told him to.  
  
At last, Frisk spoke to the soul. Strangely enough, Kris could not hear the boy’s voice physically resonate in his environment, yet he still listened to what he had said and what his voice sounded like.  
  
Kris was left shocked by the development, but he tried not to overthink on it, as it really was the least uncanny thing he had experienced recently.    
  
With a few words as possible, Frisk told his disembodied companion about a feeling he had. That someone was waiting for him in the Ruins, and that they needed to speak to them to achieve some closure to this whole crazy adventure.  
  
Kris still had no idea what that ‘adventure’ had been, but judging by the feeling in the boy’s own heart, he could tell it had been quite a journey.

  


  
Kris completely froze up at hearing the heart’s words. ‘Asriel? He also exists in this world!?’ he frantically asked himself. What was his brother doing in the Dark World, or whatever another world this was?  
  
Frisk spoke again. He told his companion that he didn’t quite know if Asriel was the one waiting for him, but his gut was inclined to believe so.  
  
The heart said nothing for a few seconds. Right before Frisk could open his mouth to ask if everything was alright, the soul spoke out once again.

Frisk asked the soul why it had that desire. Kris was very much on the boy’s side as well.

  
_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_

  
The soul bitterly laughed.

  
_  
  
  
_

_  
  
  
_

  
Kris was stunned by what he had just heard the soul say. He could feel an overwhelming heartache at the mere thought of his brother dying and at the hands of humans, no less. It seemed that the timeline he was witnessing was the inverse of his, one where humans dominated. Despite having had dreams of a world where he could meet his own kind in large quantities, now that he saw one such world, it only served to make him feel all the more disturbed and ill at his own musings. ‘Not like this,’ he whispered to himself, almost forgetting to check in on Frisk’s reaction to the heart’s words.  
  
When Kris again set his attention back to the boy, he had stopped in his tracks, his usually stoic expression shifting, with his brows creasing and his lips dropping into a start of a scowl.  

  
_  
  
_

  
Frisk said nothing in reply to the heart’s taunt. Usually, he would ignore the mockery and move on with his day, but the more the debated it with himself, the more he came to the conclusion that staying silent wasn’t something that would be beneficial in this particular situation.  
  
Once more, in a few strongly worded sentences as Frisk could manage, he reminded his spiritual co-pilot that it was because of said mercy that they had found some form of redemption from all their sins.  
  
The heart was silent for a second before forming a reply.

  
_  
  
  
_

  
Before the soul could finish, Frisk interrupted them, quickly reminding the heart how it was because of mercy that they had broken free of the evil taint that had led them to cause countless others untold suffering over hundreds of timelines.  
  
‘Timelines?’ Kris thought to himself as he absorbed Frisk’s words. ‘Does this mean... these two have some kind of connection with the soul back in my reality?’ he asked himself. As the teen began trying to put the pieces together, he couldn’t help but wonder if the soul within the boy Frisk was the same as the one he had trapped in the cage back home. They sounded alike, and they even spoke alike, barring a bit more emotion.  
  
Kris’ pondering almost made him miss the heart’s retort to Frisk.

  
__

__

_  
_  
Not seconds after the soul had finished speaking did Frisk not only remind the being once known as the fallen child how mercy not only had allowed them to continue existing but how it also had returned their very sanity and peace of mind to them. Megalomaniac killer no more, they now had a chance at a peaceful existence.  
  
Kris waited for either the soul or Frisk to say anything, but neither boy nor heart spoke a word. As the seconds dragged, the teen could feel the tension growing between the two, until at last, the heart let out a deep sigh.

  


  
Frisk, despite his blank expression, felt great warm happiness envelop him. It was as if the very cosmos was grinning on his behalf.  
  
Kris couldn’t help but be put off by the fact that he too was feeling the boy’s emotion. It was Frisk’s victory, not his.

  
_  
  
  
_

  
Frisk sighed, the cosmo’s grin vanishing almost instantaneously. Kris, despite his previous thoughts, partially shared in the sentiment as well.  
  
With nothing more to say, The boy once more resumed his trek, his thoughts still lingering on the question posed to him earlier by the soul. As his mind processed and pondered, his body traveled to their intended destination without any input from the human.

  


  
Frisk nodded, yet did not reply to the Soul. Kris, on the other hand, found the new development rather upsetting. ‘So, Frisk here also has been possessed in the past,’ he thought. The teen was more than familiar with the feeling, and he had hated the fact that he had little to no choice while under the heart’s influence. It had been the main reason he had ripped that parasite out of his body. Yet, as he analyzed more of Frisk’s mind for a possible answer, he found far more information than he bargained for, much of which made almost no sense to him. About the only thing that did make sense was the revelation that the soul wasn’t to blame in the first place, as when they had taken control over Frisk’s actions, all it had wanted to do was hurt others in a misguided attempt at becoming stronger. It never bothered ACTing or running away, only single-mindedly attacking anything and anyone.  
  
Kris was again reminded of his own experience with possession, except in his case, the soul had kept him from going too far down the path of violence. Very much unlike the other demonic entity that wanted control of his body, as that entity came quite close to the memories of the soul’s original behavior in this reality. Thus, he had no choice but to reach the conclusion that whatever was acting on Frisk’s body right now was closer to instinct than a sentient entity. It was not above ACTing or running in the name of self-preservation, and it had no qualms about taking an unforeseen step forward to cause an attacker to miss or to block a blow that would have otherwise left a very nasty scar.

The more Kris thought about it, the more disturbed he became. ‘Maybe our choices really don’t matter in the end,’ he somberly thought.

  
_  
_ _  
_

  
Frisk—and by extension, Kris—brought his full attention to the monster the soul mentioned. Just as it had said, she was indeed a clam monster, the ‘clam’ sitting right on the shoulder in the open position, and the ‘pearl’ being the monster’s head. Though, the coloration of the pearl made it look more like an orange—the little bit of green hair tied into a ponytail on the top not helping matters at all by looking like a leaf.  
  
The clam-gal had a shapely hourglass body, her clothes being a skin-tight suit that went up to the bosom. The upper shoulders were left bare, revealing more orange-toned skin, with a pair of gloves of the same tone as the suit traveling the rest of her arm lengths. Naturally, the arms ended in two stubs, which made Frisk—and by extension, Kris—question how she held on to anything.  
  
‘Maybe the stubs have tiny fingers or suckers?’ Kris asked himself, after which he tried to get that particular image out of his head. Monster biology in some respects was just too strange. One thing was for sure though, he had never seen this specific monster in Hometown, or anywhere in his world, for that matter.  
  
“Oh, hello there!” the clam girl cheered the instant her gaze fell upon Frisk. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before! Or maybe I have, and I just missed you. A lot of people do travel down these roads!” she paused, her eyes settling on the boy, allowing her a clearer view. “Oh, wait for a second, I know about you! You’re that human that helped open up the barrier!” The clam girl brought her hands up to her mouth as she allowed herself a squee of clamorous excitement. “I never thought I’d get to meet you face to face!” she reached out with her hands and grabbed hold of his right arm, shaking it furiously, the simper on her lips possibly shining as bright as the sun waiting on the surface. “You are quite the celebrity, you know! Why, I would say you are bigger than Mettaton themselves, though only by a little bit!” she added, her grin never once wavering. 

_  
  
_

_  
_

  
Frisk rolled his eyes at the soul’s words. Kris was inclined to agree with Frisk, though he could certainly see where the soul was coming from. Some monsters had a bizarre way of viewing romanticism.  
  
“You’re probably wondering what am still doing here in Waterfall, aren’t you?” the clam-girl asked, her question catching Frisk somewhat off-guard. “Well, I was paying this beautiful part of the underground a visit to get some nice relaxation into my system. You see, I’m from the capital. New Home’s nice and all, but the hustle and bustle of the big city has a way of wearing down a girl. So, whenever I feel like I need to recharge my batteries, I visit this place!”  
  
Frisk nodded in agreement with the clam monster. While he found Waterfall a bit too humid for his tastes, he could see how an aquatic being such as her would find the area quite homey.  
  
Kris, on the other hand, couldn’t relate to anything that had just been spoken. For starters, he would have welcomed the bustle of a city compared to the boredom of Hometown. Secondly, who names their capital city New Home? The name was just as bad as the one his town had. ‘Maybe there’s a connection here,’ the teen theorized. ‘If these are alternate timelines, then the same founder of this ‘New Home’ could also have been the one who founded ‘Hometown’ where I’m from?’ Possible, but whatever the case, he decided to drop the subject for the time being, as the boy and monster still seemed to have plenty to talk about that he did not want to miss.  
  
“Say, now that I’m getting a better look at you, I realize something,” the clam-girl started, her posture changing as she bent over just enough to be near eye-level with Frisk. “You’re about the same age as my neighbor’s daughter!”  
  
Frisk raised an eyebrow at the monster’s words.  
  
Clam-girl nodded. “Her name’s Suzy. I feel like you two should be friends. In fact, in life’s grand scheme, she might just be the reason you came here in the first place!”  
  
Frisk’s eyebrow only rose higher in those words. He well and honestly had no idea what to make of that. In fact, for the first time in a very long time, he was drawing a complete blank on any possible meaning.  
  
Kris, on the other hand, found the name far too familiar for comfort. ‘It’s only a few letters away from my Susie,’ he thought as memories of the dragon teen played in his mind. ‘Can it be... maybe there’s also a connection between the two?’ he wondered, his mind working overtime to try and make sense of everything it was absorbing.  
  
'Maybe a meaning does not need to be deciphered here?  
I think clam-girl here is just telling you to befriend this Suzy girl  
That should not be too hard for you'  
  
Somehow, Frisk found that rather unlikely. Every monster he had ever met in the Underground stuck with him in some shape, way, or form. From the meek Froggits of the ruins, all the way to the likes of Jerry, which he desperately wished he could forget about.  
  
Both Frisk and the heart were so preoccupied with trying to figure out meaning to clam-girl’s words that they didn’t notice the two figures approach them from behind.  Kris, however, did and had he been able to, he would have had his eyes widen to the size of tea plates.  
  
“Oh, what a coincidence! There she is!” Clam-girl remarked. The smile that stretched from one end of her face to the other somehow grew even wider as she stood back to her full height and raised her arms in celebration. “Hello!!!” she vociferously cheered.  
  
Frisk turned to face the new visitors, ready to ACT should the necessity arise. Kris, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what he was seeing, his sense all but shot to hell as he felt stunned and unable to properly think.  
  
The first figure of the two was the adult monster, his species being something between a dinosaur or a dragon, his skin tone a dark shade of purple, his black hair at shoulder length and somewhat unkempt. Aside from his white tank-top and light blue denim jeans, the rest of his features were too shrouded by his hair and the shadow cast by it. Something about his lack of discernible emotion made him come off as intimidating, however.  
  
The second figure was a child, also of a species somewhere between a dino and dragon. Her skin tone was closer to mauve, with the only other outstanding feature being the freckles on the side of her face. Her aubergine-toned hair was long, with bangs that covered the right eye and a single yellow scrunchie keeping what would have otherwise been an unruly mop in control. Covering the majority of her body was a bright yellow hooded poncho, with the only other visible garb being light blue denim pants and a pair of white sneakers, both of which remained surprisingly dry for how humid the environment was.  
  
“I was just talking about you guys!! You wouldn’t believe who I just ran into right now! Look!” clam-girl continued, pointing one of her limbs at the Frisk. “It’s the human child that helped break the seal!!”  
  
The adult monster shifted his whole head downwards so that his muzzle pointed in the same direction as Frisk, yet because of the shadows cast over his eyes, it was almost impossible to tell if he was looking at him directly, or at something else entirely. “...Nice,” he said, his tone somewhere between disinterest and indifference.  
  
The child monster, on the other hand, could only stare at Frisk, her single visible eye full with a mixture of shock and awe, almost as if she was looking at someone so very familiar to her—someone that through the ravages of time and life’s many tribulations had gone from her life, only to return once again when she least expected it.

_  
  
  
  
_

  
Frisk had no real answer to give to his companion. He too was feeling an overwhelming sense of familiarity despite him never really meeting the girl.  
  
“Oh, what’s the matter, Suzy?” Clam-girl asked the little girl, her expression softening, yet her smile never once wavering. “It’s okay to be nervous in front of celebrities. Gosh, I know, since that one that time Mettaton was handing out autographs, and he approached me, and I...”  
  
Clam-girl continued, but her words were lost on Frisk, his eyes still glued on Suzy, who in turn also couldn’t look away from him.  
  
At last, Suzy let go of her father’s hand and took a step forward. “D-Do... do I know you from... somewhere else?” she asked, her words directed at Frisk, but her question professedly directed at someone else.  
  
It should have been a simple question. Yet, as Suzy continued to look past the boy’s eyes, Kris could sense a sense of familiarity—of warmth—growing in him.  
  
“K-Kris?” Suzy softly stammered. “Kris! I-is... is that... really you?” the young dragon asked as she slowly reached out towards Frisk, who stood by stiff as a rock.  
  
Kris had no idea what was happening anymore. He couldn’t tell if what he was now witnessing was real, some figment of his imagination, or some sick joke perpetrated by the voice in the void. How was it possible that the little dragon girl before his eyes knew his name? How could she even see him in the first place? Why was no one else reacting to her words? It made absolutely no sense.  
  
Despite having no control over his current circumstance, Kris tried his hardest to have the boy reach out and grasp onto the girl’s outstretched hand. “Common! Move!” he shouted as loud as his non-existent voice would allow. “Please! Move and grab her hand!” he bellowed at the boy, who remained as stiff as a statue. “MOVE!!!”

  
-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

  
Susie opened her eyes, her sight falling on her aching fist at first. Her eyes then traveled the path it had taken, to the now empty spot where Kris had been standing just seconds ago. Her eyes then continued tracing the ground until, at last, they fell on the crumpled, defeated shape of the teenage boy now laying lamely on top of the recliner near the center of the room.  
  
Susie’s eyes went wide. “Oh crap...” she whispered to herself, her mind not yet fully wrapping itself around the scene before her. When at last the full weight of her actions sunk in, she put her hands on her head, her eyes further widening to the point that they threatened to pop right out of their sockets. Her jaw went slack from a mixture of pure horror and unfathomable embarrassment, and her face became so flush that her normal mauve coloring turned a fiery crimson red. “OH GOD DAMN SCREWING CRAP!!!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. That was swiftly followed by a stream of nonsensical obscenities that would have taken an Enigma machine to have a hope at deciphering.  
  
Susie dropped her bag and quickly rushed towards Kris, her breathing raspy, rapid, and uneven. “I... I-I didn’t mean to punch you that hard... Or at all!” she said to Kris, her head turning from side to side in a frantic panic, her body now producing enough sweat to fill a small bathtub.  
  
Naturally, Susie got no reply from Kris. After a minute of pure silence, she buried her face in her hands and groaned. “What kind of dumbass goes around punching her best friend out cold!?” she shouted, her voice muffled by her trembling hands. “What will Ms. Toriel say if she saw this?!” She felt ice in the pit of her gut at that thought. She’d seen Ms. Toriel angry before, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Already, she could imagine the overprotective caprine raining fire and brimstone on her with all the fury allowed to someone of her stature. If she were lucky, maybe she’d get off with a few years prison time.  
  
That was, assuming Kris was even still alive. “Oh god, if he’s not...” Susie whispered to herself.  
  
With a trembling hand and a tough swallow, the dragon whelp pressed her fingers over Kris’ neck, being extra careful not to dig her talons into his flesh. She closed her eyes and braced for the worst, images of a cold and gray cell already forming in the back of her mind. She gripped her aching chest with her free hand, the possibility of having killed the only real friend she’d ever made only compounding the horrible thoughts in her mind.  
  
For the first second, she felt nothing. The teen began sweating bullets as another second began to pass by without anything. Just when she was about to pull away and break into hysterical sobs, she felt it in the tip of her fingers; that which made all her previous thoughts all but vanish and filled her heart with a new warmth that eased just as much as it confused her: “A pulse!” she jovially exclaimed as she at last sensed life within the human’s body.  
  
With the biggest sigh of relief in her life, Susie eased herself, most of the tension in her body vanishing as she slowly rose to her feet and waddled toward the nearest wall for support. Once her hand made contact with something substantial, she allowed herself more room to breathe easier. As she did, her eyes once more drifted towards Kris’s unconscious form, a knot forming in her chest at the sight she had created. “Some friend I turned out to be...” she bemoaned meekly. “And right after I... oh goddammit... God damn it!” She put a hand on her face, her eyes fighting back the tears of frustration, shame, and despair. Somewhere in the dark recesses of her mind, she could hear her uncle’s voice clawing its way to the forefront.  
  
Susie gave herself a slap on the face before more disturbing thoughts could take root. “No! Now’s not the time to be feeling sorry for yourself. You got yourself in this hole. Claw your way out of it, goddammit!” Susie’s eyes shone brightly with determined vigor at her own words. She rushed back towards Kris and carefully lifted him over her shoulder. The task was easy, considering Kris was almost a full head shorter than she was, but she took the utmost care when moving him from the living room to the bathroom. With a kick, she opened the door, the aroma of a clean bath filled the dragon’s nostrils. The cleanliness and comfy aura emanating from the room made her feel jealous of what to her almost seemed like a luxury she would never really know. ‘Worry about that later. Fix your mess first!’ she sternly told herself.  
  
Without wasting another second, Susie turned on the sink faucet and closed the drain, allowing freezing water to start pooling. She then brought down the toilet lid and gingerly sat Kris on the toilet seat and ran back to the kitchen, where she began opening all the cupboards until at last, she found the biggest cup in the entire house. With her vigor still flaring, she dashed back into the bathroom and scooped as much icy water as the container would hold.  
  
“You better wake the hell up! P-please...” Susie shouted, tossing the water over Kris’ face, drenching his whole head and turning his usually messy mop of auburn hair into something more akin to a freshly regurgitated hairball. Still, it had no effect on the unconscious human.  
  
“WAKE THE HELL UP!” Susie shouted while grabbing Kris’ shoulders, shaking him back and forth in an attempt at returning the teen back to the world of the living...

  
-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Kris’ vision began to fade to black. The surrounding caverns vanished, clam girl vanished, the older dragon vanished, even the boy’s body began to vanish as ever-encroaching darkness began to consume everything touched by the light.

  
“Susie!” Kris shouted wordlessly as again tried to reach out towards the little dragon girl, who by that point was the only thing still untouched by the quickly encroaching darkness.  
  
Suzy, in turn, reached out even further than before. Much to Kris’ surprise, she grabbed hold on his hand. Not Frisk’s and not the soul’s, but HIS hand. “KRIS!” she shouted as her body began to fade away with the all-consuming darkness. “Don’t let it take you! Don’t let it control you!” Tears began streaming down the little dragon’s eyes as she grabbed his arm with her other hand, dragging him closer to her face. “DON’T FORGET!” she cried as her very body began fading away from sight like sand blowing away in a dust storm.  
  
“SUSIE!” Kris shouted as the black finally overcame all his senses save his mind.  
  
From the void, the cold, apathetic voice once again resonated.

 

 

 

Kris felt himself be sucked away from everything as blackness once again began to overcome his senses. He struggled, shouting at the void, which only absorbed his sound and left his mouth silent...  
  
...  
...  
...  
  
Kris woke with a start, all while coughing and wheezing for air.  
  
Susie lets go of his shoulders in response, taking a step back with a mixture of surprise and relief on her face. She almost felt like allowing her body to collapse on itself as the adrenaline slowly began to wear off.  
  
Once the shock finally wore off, Kris tried to speak, but rather than words, he only emitted a moan of pain as he grabbed on to his chin and massaged his forehead. As he rubbed the spot where he had was sure he had been struck by a sledgehammer, parting the bangs of hair covering his face to better apply pressure on the spot.  
  
It was for a second, but the action was just long enough for Susie to get a good look at the human’s usually obscured eyes. ‘Red...?’ the dragon thought to herself as the image of Kris’ crimson irises was burned into her memory. Last she recalled, humans didn’t have red eyes, and if they did, they indeed weren’t supposed to be bright. To say it was unusual was an understatement. Their glow, their presence, their depth, and almost raw power... something about them felt off-putting yet utterly captivating all at the same time.  
  
Susie looked away, quickly realizing the more she stared at his eyes, the more flustered she became. ‘Kris... you have... pretty eyes... my little treasure...’ she thought to herself, all the while her vocal cords readied themselves to utter the words. But before any such messages could be said, Susie felt her tongue become tied, and her cheeks burn at the thought. Just the idea of saying such a thing filled her with enough embarrassment to never again show her face publicly. Yet, she could not deny that there was something about Kris’ eyes that drew her in, almost as if she was a moth and those eyes were a fire shining in the dark.  
  
Kris scanned his surroundings, seemingly lost in a haze, before his eyes fell on Susie, at which point his expression began to normalize back to its usual semi-neutral state. “Feels like I just woke up from a beating,” he started, gently trying to get back to his feet, groaning as his body, still stiff from the experience, gradually began obeying his commands once again. He once more put a hand on his head, rubbing the spot where he had been struck by Susie. “Feels like I... forget something. Something important...” The teen looked to his friend. “Uh... Susie... did you... punch my lights out?” he asked in a soft, non-accusatory voice.  
  
Susie looked away from Kris, her cheeks growing even darker than before. “I-I did warn ya!” she said, her eyes not quite being able to meet her friend’s. “Don’t go surprising me like that ever again, you hear!?” she half-shouted as she crossed her arms and turned her head away, cheeks so flushed that one could feel the heat radiating from them.  
  
Kris sat up straight on the toilet seat, his eyes falling on the friend who had just clocked his lights out with a single punch. Rather than complaint like anyone else would, he only sighed and shook his head. He then snorted, followed by a few chuckles. “Yeah. I guess I should have expected that” he said, finally breaking into full-on laughter. He grabbed a nearby folded towel began drying hair. “Last time I answer the door while only wearing an undershirt. Promise.”  
  
Susie, despite the sheer embarrassment of the situation, couldn’t help but find Kris’ last statement infectiously funny. After a few restrained and scattered giggles of her own, she also began to laugh with full force. This only prompted Kris’ own laughter to intensify, almost as if to match that of the dragon’s. It wasn’t long before the two teenagers laughed nearly uncontrollably, their chuckles eventually becoming one and the same echoing through the house.  
  
In the back of Kris’ mind though, he couldn’t help but try to remember ‘something.’ Yet, he didn’t know what that something was. All he could recall was the darkness of subconsciousness.  
  
Such a strange feeling, that emptiness that couldn’t be filled because one couldn’t remember what was supposed to fill it in the first place. Such a strange emotion, that feeling of longing that couldn’t be explained or rationalized...

* * *

* * *


	7. COME TOGETHER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noelle and Rudy talk about an event in the past that changed everything for Hometown...

* * *

* * *

The sun was slowly setting on that fall evening, the rays of sunlight shining through the gaps of leaves and branches, casting long reaching shadows as the duel between light and dark came to its inevitable daily conclusion.

On the northeast of town, nestled into a massive artificial clearing in the forest surrounding the sleepy and quiet village, the Holiday manor stood tall, its white and red paint coloration standing in stark contrast to the ocean of brown leaves and black tree trunks surrounding it. Yet for its size and grand appearance, the Holiday manor was a quiet abode, primarily as of late.

Noelle Holiday was the sole resident of the manor that evening, a fact that wasn’t lost on the teenage doe as she carefully shifted the knee-length ruby gown around her bust, waist, and hips to get the perfect form, all the while adjusting the thin silk straps around her shoulder. As she peered at her reflection on the life-sized mirror on her closet door, she couldn't help inspecting herself for any lingering defect. With a nod of content approval, she reached for her pair of matching red slippers and slid them on, completing her dressing routine and leaving only her hair to style.

With the same diligence as when she dressed, Noelle began brushing and taming her golden mane. She had expected some kind of battle with what she often believed to be an unruly mop, but as she brushed and sprayed down her hair, it promptly began to take shape, laying down as if in total understanding of the evening to come and its importance to her.

As she inspected herself in the mirror, Noelle couldn’t help but feel some sense of alienation at seeing herself so fancily attired. True, she was used to being the prim and proper daughter of the Holiday family, but something about seeing herself in such an elegant gown didn’t quite sit right with her. Still, she performed a little spin to get a better look on the mirror.

Yet, as she smiles at the resulting flow of her dress and hair, Noelle felt a nagging question in the back of her mind, one that paradoxically made her feel quite abashed. As she gazed at the prettied-up doe looking back at her in the mirror, she paused to reflect about what that night would manifest not just for her, but for all around her. As a dozen different thoughts ran through her mind, she couldn't help but lament the fact that a part of her still speculated just why she was going through so much trouble for a school dance. _Am I really doing this because I want to feel nice and prim and fancy... or am I doing it all for his sake?_

Noelle wanted to sternly tell herself that she was doing it for herself. Yet, just thinking about uttering the words made her feel as if she was desperately formulating some lie. As much as some small part of her psyche wanted to refute it, a large part of her actuality wasn’t exactly looking out for her own personal interest that evening. Far from it.

Noelle again lamented. She recalled how she had originally imagined everything playing out. Had things gone as intended, Susie would be the one accompanying her to the dance, not Kris. But things rarely ever seem to go to plan when it comes to her friends, and plans change with or without her input on them.

Even so, Noelle had no compunction about going with Kris. Far from it. The thought about her childhood friend made the doe’s cheeks grow warm and her heart feel fluttery. She could still vividly remember how despite what had no doubt been a lot of trepidation on his part, Kris had stuttered out his request—his 'favor'—to be his date for the dance. Though still too fresh to be considered a real memory, the recollection made her feel tender and gratified in a way that almost defied an explanation.

Yet for all the pleasant sensations in Noelle's heart, there was something else there too... like a desire to support someone in great need, even if they couldn't recognize needing the help in the first place.

Yet, when Noelle really thought about it, It didn’t make much sense at all. While true that Kris was a part of a broken family, both of his parents still loved him dearly. Even Asriel—despite being the embodiment of perfection in every possible way to society—practically revered his little brother.

Noelle turned away from the mirror, her face only growing only hotter as she did. Kris was her oldest friend, the two practically knowing each other their entire lives. She had always been there for him whenever he was troubled or scared or hurt, and while he had returned some of her kindness with a prank or two, he had never taken things too far and had been just as ready to support her in times of need.  _Like earlier today,_  she reminded herself. Distant as Kris had become over the years, he still cared about her, ‘and I, in turn, care about him…’

The corners of Noelle’s lips rose as her cheeks turned a shade of red. Yet, it was a welcome change in tone, one that filled her heart with a fluttery sensation that was delightful to experience.

But as lovely as the feeling was, something else abruptly struck Noelle, something that she never had really stopped to ponder until that instant when thinking about her oldest friend in the world...

"Why... can’t I recall the first time I ever met him?"

The warmth in Noelle's face slowly began to fade as she started racking her brain for an answer. Yes, she remembered her kindergarten years with Kris. She remembered the games they played, the many pranks he pulled, the times he got caught in her family’s light decorations, and the many times Dess beat on him with his foam bat to keep his escapades in line. Yet, for all those memories, she couldn’t remember the first time she had ever come face to face with Kris. What made it more unsettling was that she could recall the day she and Asriel were first introduced, down to what they had eaten that morning for breakfast... and she was convinced that had happened AFTER meeting Kris for the first time.

Suddenly, a cold, uncomfortable, appalling feeling began filling Noelle at the professedly unnatural gap in her memory. She wasn’t one to quickly forget friends and family, and if she remembered such a minute thing as the breakfast she had the day she first met Asriel, then she should have been able to recollect the day she had first met Kris.

_How can I possibly not remember such an important aspect of my life? How can I have forgotten something so vital, so... precious... to me?_

Noelle's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a small bustle coming from her home's foyer all of a sudden: the sound of keys jingling and a door opening, followed by the clicking of high heels on smooth alabaster tile flooring.

Putting away all her current thoughts, Noelle turned her full attention to the sounds in her house. _That’s impossible. She’s never home this early. Ever,_  the teen thought to herself as she made her way out of her room and towards the lobby.  
  
Slowly and meekly, Noelle stuck her head past the hallway, letting her gaze travel past the stairs and down onto the first floor. There, she spotted the figure of another doe in her mid 30’s wearing formal business attire, her red skirt suit just long enough to travel past the knee, yet short enough to keep her legs free for the long strides she preferred so much. Her pale blonde hair was held at neck’s length, styled into well-trimmed curls that spoke of constant maintenance, as there was not a single hair longer than the others. While she was a little too far to properly see it, the doe also kept a well-balanced and modest level of makeup befitting one of her social standing, the bright red lipstick doing just enough to accentuate the shape and fullness of her lips, and the magenta eyeshadow drawing all attention to her pale blue eyes, which were ardent and transfixing.

Noelle swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. The shock of seeing her mother home so unexpectedly was not something she had been planning to experience that evening. Over the last few years, her mother was so often away that the older doe essentially felt like a stranger.

Noelle slunk back behind cover and pressed herself against the wall. She could feel her heartbeat start to race as she debated whether or not to even greet her mother.

She clenched her hands shut and grimaced at the idea of it. Noelle had plenty of reasons to be irate with her mother. Sometimes, she really wished she could just walk up to her and get it all off her chest, but how could she when the Holiday matriarch was not only a hardy and cold woman... but was also the hardy and cold mayor as well?

Noelle closed her eyes and thought about what to do next. She could just go back to her room and wait for her mother to go to her office, the room being the only other place her mother seemed to reside in when home. Yet, that would only be avoiding the problem, one that the young doe felt she couldn’t hide away nor try to block any longer.

With an exhalation to steady the nerves, the teenage doe prepared herself for what was to come.

“Mom! You’re… home,” Noelle stated as she walked away from her cover and made her passage downstairs. “What a surprise!” she added with some feigned bewilderment.

The older doe turned to face her daughter, raising an eyebrow in reply. “Surprise? This is my house. What’s so surprising about me being here?” she asked with a timbre that mixed disinterest and cold distance.

Noelle winced.  _Of course,_  she thought to herself, all the while putting on the widest smile she could manage. “It’s nice to see you here so… early, is all!” she quickly answered.

Mrs. Holiday looked at her daughter with a narrowed stare, her already raised eyebrow rising even higher. “I’m not technically home yet. I’m just dropping off paperwork before going back to city hall.” She narrowed her eyes even further. “What’s with the dress?”

Noelle was surprised by her mother’s question. “I uh... left you a message yesterday afternoon. I-I’m going... to the Sadie Hawkman’s dance,” she answered. “R-remember?”

The older doe blinked three times before her eyes widened with cognizance. “Oh right, the school dance. I remember now,” she said half disinterestedly. “Be a good sweetie and be home before midnight. Also, don’t forget the gate key like you did on Monday, okay?” she sternly added before picking up her briefcase and walking towards the east end of the house, where her office was located.

Noelle didn’t like her mother’s tone near the end. Sure, she forgot her key that Monday, but if someone had been home that evening, she wouldn’t have had to sleep over at Catti’s house that night.

Something suddenly snapped inside Noelle’s mind as she turned to face her mother. “I... wouldn’t need a gate key if… if someone was home more often!” she snidely snapped.

Noelle felt ice in her stomach as a realization seemingly absent for a few moments slowly overtook her. Why had she snapped like that? It wasn’t like her to be bitter at anything, even when pushed by others. She wasn't one to think on any form of retribution or hurtful remark to get some kind of absolution. Yet something about her mother of all people really was driving her to a place she hadn’t been to before, one she didn't much like...

Mrs. Holiday stopped in her tracks and slowly spun around to face her daughter, once again putting her briefcase on the floor to free up her hands.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” the overbearing matriarch asked, her tone dripping with indignation and barely restrained enmity.

Noelle closed her eyes and exhaled deeply before setting her glare right into her mother’s eyes. As she did, she could feel something in her chest that hadn’t been there before; a fire that longed to burn bright and fierce yet had always been stifled and contained and made ineffective by external forces and her own fears of it running wild.

The teenage doe took a step forward. “I wouldn’t need a gate key if SOMEONE were home more often,” she repeated, only this time far more obstinately.

Mrs. Holiday scoffed and crossed her arms. “Oh? And where did this come from, hmmm? Are you trying to imply that I am not a good mother?”

Noelle grimaced. “No, but I am saying that you could do a heck of a lot more than work so much,” she said, taking another step forward. “I-I mean, you’re barely home anymore, you care more about your role as mayor more than as a mother, and I haven’t seen you smile in what feels like years!” she bellowed, her hands clenching shut in reply to her raised voice.

Mrs. Holiday exhaled and shook her head. “I work hard and long into the night to keep this whole town from IMPLODING on itself! To keep you and everyone else happy!” Her brow furled as her eyes grew harsher and colder. “You’re young and inexperienced; you have no idea what kind of troubles I have to fix every day just to keep the gears of Hometown turning!” The older doe took a pace forward, bringing her almost chest-to-chest with her daughter. “Politics is a cutthroat field. One wrong move—one misplaced priority—and everyone’s ready and willing to tear you apart!”

“Mom,” Noelle started, her tone slightly softer than earlier. “I… can’t say that I know just what kind of hassles you have to put up with daily, and I can’t say I even understand the first thing that comes when talking about politics, but that’s no excuse for being so distant from dad or me or anyone else that cares about you!”

“I have to be distant! There’s just no place in politics and administration for such trivialities as sentimentality and family!”

“But a family is the most important thing anyone can have!” Noelle yelled, her volume surprising even her.

Mrs. Holiday’s eyes narrowed again. “And what would you know about family?” she coldly asked.

“A heck of a lot more than you, it seems!” Noelle harshly answered. “Ever since dad was hospitalized, you have not visited once! I have been the only one there for him, giving support, telling him that everything’s going to be fine... Why, just last night, I spent the whole night in the hospital just to make sure he didn’t feel abandoned!”

Mrs. Holiday seemed to be taken aback by her daughter’s words at first, but that quickly changed as she pursed her lips. “Rudy’s condition is… regrettable. Believe me when I say that if I could, I would see him every hour of every single day... but I just can’t. It’s impossible for me to just drop my work and run to be at his side!”

Noelle shook her head. “That’s a lie. You could if you really wanted to…” she coldly hissed.

Mrs. Holiday scowled. “You take that back!”

“I can’t take back something that’s the truth!” Noelle cried in response.

The two reindeer stood facing each other in an impromptu standoff, both of their faces contorted into visages of fury. However, their anger wasn’t so much directed at each other, but more at each other’s words. How could they be furious at each other when they spoke the truth about their respective situations?

Mrs. Holiday was the first to break the abrupt silence between mother and daughter. “Look, I… understand where you are coming from, but… things…” The older doe bit her bottom lip. “It’s not the same as when you were younger. Things change for everyone, and sometimes certain things have to be sacrificed for the good of everyone else.”

Noelle shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I CAN’T believe that. There should never be anything that forces anyone away from those they love and care about!” She grabbed one of her arms and looked to the side. “Is it so wrong to want to have my mother care about her family again?”

Mrs. Holiday again scoffed and crossed her arms. “You’re one to talk. Tonight you plan on going to a dance instead of going to see your father. If what you were saying was really true, you wouldn’t be here wearing such a fancy dress and thinking about a night of merrymaking, now would you?”

Noelle felt her face grow hot. “That’s not true at all! I’m doing this specifically because dad told me to go and enjoy my youth while I still can!"

Mrs. Holiday rolled her eyes and jeered. “Of course Rudy told you that," she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Even after all these years, he still hasn’t gotten it through that thick skull of his that there is just no more room for ‘fun’ anymore. There are too many things to work on; too many things that need watching and tending and supervising in this town.”

Noelle was about to retort her mother’s words, but she instead kept quiet. It wasn’t like her mother was wrong to think how she did, but the fact that she couldn’t see past it when just about everyone else could annoy her endlessly.

“Going back to your dance, the dress and makeup are too fancy for you to be going alone,” Mrs. Holiday suddenly stated, catching Noelle off-guard. “Who’s the lucky boy?” the older doe asked, her eyes narrowing the instant her words were spoken. “I hope it’s not that overly self-righteous project partner of yours. What was his name again?”

“Berdly,” Noelle quickly replied.

“Nerdly, yes, that guy.” Mrs. Holiday set a glare on her daughter. “I hope it’s not him. In fact, I would take you going with the Dreemurr kid better than that smug wisecracker.” She bitterly chuckled. “Why couldn’t Asriel be the one to stay and Kris be the one to leave town?”

Noelle rubbed the back of her head. “Uh… well… I guess the good news is that I am not going to the dance with Ner—I mean, Berdly.” The teenage doe’s cheeks began to turn a darker shade of pink. “But in regards to Kris… I, uh... w-well…”

Mrs. Holiday’s eyes began to widen as realization dawned on her. “It’s the human boy, isn’t?”

Noelle didn’t answer, instead only opting to nod of confirmation.

Mrs. Holiday took a step back and laughed. “Noelle Holiday, my daughter and prodigy of Hometown, going to a dance with that… joker…” she hissed out her words, all the while chuckling, only this time far more harshly and bitterly. “That’s actually a pretty good joke!” The older doe exhaled and wiped her eyes. “Okay, seriously, who’s the date?”

Noelle’s face turned an even deeper shade of crimson as she began pouting her cheeks. “Mom, I'm serious!” She put a hand on her chest and set a steely gaze on her mother’s eyes. “Kris is my date!”

The teen felt herself become paralyzed the instant she had uttered the words. _Did I… just say that Kris was… my date… to my mother’s face no less…!?_  she thought, the very idea slowly threatening to send her into a miniature panic attack. I  _mean, by all technicalities, the act of asking someone out to an event such as a dance would be considered a date... But Kris is my oldest friend; practically family. You can’t date someone like that!_  the teen desperately mused in an attempt to get her mind back on track.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Holiday’s face had lost a shade of its brown coloration as her eyes, looking like they were ready to pop from their sockets, bore into her daughter’s very being. “Noelle… Kris is not... good ‘date’ material... Far from it...”

Noelle, now returned from her previous stupor, was having a difficult time understanding what her mother had just said. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she couldn’t help but ask.

Mrs. Holiday’s eyes hardened. “For starters, he’s way too socially inept. Secondly, he’s not exactly top of the class if what your principal has told me is true; nowhere near what his brother was like. Finally, he’s a no-good delinquent that only likes to prank and sulk around town all day long. In fact, he’s pranked you so many times already that I’m surprised you don’t already avoid him on sight.” She shook her head. “I really feel sorry for Toriel. Kris is... kind of a freak!”

At those words, Noelle felt a pang of discomfort erupt in her chest. It was quickly followed by a searing sensation that filled her very blood with fire. As the teen’s eyes narrowed, she could feel herself tensing up, her hands clenching into white-knuckled fists. She hung her head, a blonde curtain falling over her eyes as she struggled desperately to keep herself from exploding. While true that Kris being called a ‘freak’ wasn’t anything new, not in a hundred years could she have pictured her own mother seeing her oldest friend in such a form.

“Kris… is not a freak,” Noelle started, her tone soft yet cold as a glacier. “He’s not a delinquent either,” she added, not 100% sure about the claim, but her mother didn’t need to know that. “Kris may be a prankster and socially awkward, and a bit too moody at times… but he’s got a good heart and means well! He’s just… been through a lot… ever since his parents separated and his brother left town!” She raised her head again and looked into her mother’s eyes. “That’s why he’s become so distant, and I… I want to help him in any way that I can!”

“Why!?” Mrs. Holiday asked.

“Because… I…” Noelle swallowed a lump in her throat and took a deep breath. “Because I owe him. Because he’s my friend. Because I don’t want him to always be the ‘odd one out’ in this town. Because I… I want to see him be happy again!”

Mrs. Holiday said nothing at first. Only taking a few steps back, her expression cold yet unreadable. That didn’t last long, however, as she slowly shook her head in disgust. “The Dreemurrs should have known all the hardships that adopting that human would bring them. Honestly, they should have just left him on the summit of Mount Ebott that day, but no, they had to go and adopt the human and make all of our lives all the harder because of it!”

“W-what?” Noelle asked, completely flabbergasted by what she had just heard her mother say.

Despite the anger still coursing through her, Mrs. Holiday covered her mouth and looked at her daughter with wide eyes, her expression rapidly shifting to one of frustration.

The older doe turned away from her offspring and cleared her throat. “A-at any rate. I still don’t quite approve of your ‘date’ with Kris, but breaking the appointment now would just be terrible form. You go and finish your business. I have… work to still do.”

Without another word, Mrs. Holiday grabbed her briefcase and stormed off to her office in the east wing of the manor, not once turning back to look at her daughter.

Noelle, for her part, felt a mixture of emotions: confusion, unease, anger—yet the one sentiment that resided above all others was intrigue at her mother’s words.

_Summit of Mount Ebott? Mak_ _e all our lives all the harder? What could she have meant by all that?_

By the time Noelle had decided to get some form of an answer from her mother, the older doe had entered her office and closed the door. Once she locked that door, there was no getting it open without her consent.

“I should have acted sooner..." Noelle said to herself regretfully. Still, a part of her wasn’t all that torn up about it. She was still pretty upset with her mother anyway, and the idea of continuing a conversation neither of them seemed all that thrilled about maintaining was just a recipe for further grief. Besides, she didn’t need to speak to her mother at all, as there was another member of the Holidays she could question...

Noelle rushed back upstairs to her room and grabbed the rest of her belongings, stuffing everything she would need that evening into her purse. She looked down at her slippers and sighed. _No point in wearing these considering what I plan on doing..._  She took off her slippers and carefully placed them into her purse, adjusting everything else so they would fit in nice and snugly. With that done, the teen practically dove for her closet and brought out her track team sneakers and slipped them one without wasting another second. She also made sure to grab some deodorant, perfume, and hair supplies for later use.

Without further pause, Noelle closed her room and raced down the stairs and out of the manor. She cast one last look back at her dwelling before reaching for her phone to check on the time:

 

6:05 PM

 

“Just barely enough time,” Noelle whispered to herself as she looked up into the dusk sky. She understood it was a bit of a long-shot, but if anyone could give her answers for her mother’s cryptic words, it would be her father. She just hoped Kris wouldn’t mind her being so frazzled afterward.

Without another word or thought, Noelle put all her skills as captain of the track team to work, taking off dashing towards the hospital as fast as her feet—and dress—would allow.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Noelle practically burst through the front doors of Hometown General.

Though the lobby was devoid of anyone else save the receptionist, Noelle still made an effort to suppress her heavy breathing. _Who would have thought that a whole week of no running practice would leave me so out of practice…_  she thought as she cleared her throat and took deep yet silent breaths.

“Uh, Ms. Noelle, are you doing okay?” Big mouth nurse asked from behind her desk. “Did you run here to still make the visiting hours?” she asked, concern evident in her tone.

Noelle reached for her phone and looked at the time:

 

6:30 PM

 

The teenage doe couldn’t help but feel the corners of her mouth rise with delight at the great time she had made. Though, she wondered just how much quicker her trip would have taken had she had a car or even a bike.

Noelle shook her head. _Worry about transportation later. You are on a mission,_  she thought to herself as she walked up to the receptionist. “I’m fine,” Noelle answered, all the while putting on a big broad smile.

Big-Mouth tilted her head, her gaze falling on the gown the teenage doe wore. “Uh, miss… the hospital isn’t sponsoring any dance yet. Though I do believe your school is having one this very evening.”

Noelle feigned a giggle. “Oh, you know me. Always like to be as formal as I can be!” She turned away from the receptionist and cursed at herself for not putting on a sweater or something to cover herself before leaving the house.

The nurse nodded in reply and looked down at the clipboard sitting on her desk. “You’re here to see your father, correct?”

“Yes,” Noelle quickly answered. “Is he… available right now?”

The receptionist’s head perked up. “Mr. Holiday? Of course, he is! Why, If he could, he would be running around our facilities telling bad jokes and just generally being far too cheerful for his own good,” the nurse said, her big crimson lips ring into a toothy grin.

Noelle smiled and rolled her eyes. _Oh, dad…_

“Will you be staying again this evening?” the receptionist asked. “We left the foldable couch in Mr. Holiday's room just in case.”

Noelle shook her head. “Just paying my dad a quick visit tonight.” She looked away from the nurse. “Shouldn’t take too long.” N _ot that I have much time anyway,_  she quickly thought to herself.

Big Mouth nodded and pushed a button on her desk. A buzz and a clicking sound emanated from the large double doors less than a second later. “You’re good to go. Have a pleasant visit, Ms. Noelle,” the nurse said before returning to her work on the computer.

Noelle wasted no time going through the doors and down the sterile halls, eventually reaching her father’s room. Without knocking, the teen turned the handle and pushed on the door, at which point she walked in as her father sat on the reclined bed, his attention thoroughly engrossed playing the video game system she had left him the night prior. From the chiptune music piping from the CRT hanging in the corner of the room, she instantly knew her father was playing the copy of Smashing Brother Kris had loaned her around the same time Asriel had left for college. A part of her still hoped for the day when Kris would ask to have his game back. As it was now though, he had seemingly forgotten about it.

Or more accurately, he seemed to want as much distance from it as possible...

“Noelle!” Rudy exclaimed, his attention rapidly shifting away from the game. “I was not expecting to see you tonight, what with the dance and all that other good stuff!” He gruffly laughed, which as expected caused him a fit of coughing.

Noelle swiftly yet gently closes the door behind her. “Sorry for the short notice visit dad. Something came up is all.” She sighed and sat on the nearby couch. “Don’t mind my frazzled look. I just had to run here to still make visiting hours.”

Rudy gave her daughter a good look and raised an eyebrow. _She… doesn’t look any frazzled. If anything, she looks fresh out of the house,_  the buck thought before snickering once and shrugging. “Eh. I’ve seen worse. Your mother after a particularly vicious day of work comes to mind!” He slapped his knee and began laughing, only to be cut short by another bout of coughing.

Noelle couldn’t help but feel a nice warm feeling in her chest at her father’s words. It was a good sign for later that evening.

Rudy put the game controller to the side and brought his hands together. “So, what’s this ‘something’ that’s come up?” he asked, eying her daughter’s red dress. “Is it dance related? Are you getting nervous about it? Because if that’s the case, it’s all in your head kiddo! You just gotta get loose and go with the flow. Get lost in the energy of the event and enjoy it in its rawest, purest form!”

Noelle shook her head. “No dad, it’s not that kind of ‘something.’”

Rudy’s lips rose ear to ear at those words. “Oh! I see where you’re going. It’s that kind of ‘something!’” He snickered at his own words and thoughts. “Hey kiddo, it's okay to be nervous! I’m sure he’s going to turn out fine. I mean, outside of Jerry, there aren’t any scumbags in our town!” The buck chuckled, hiding absolutely none of the delight he was feeling at that time. “The dress you picked may be a bit too fancy for a small dance, but it’s understandable, seeing as this is your first time. You must have really wanted to impress someone, huh?” Rudy again slapped his knee and joyously laughed. “So, who’s the lucky suitor? Do I know him or her?”

Noelle, with a red face and somehow even redder cheeks, looked her father in the eye. “K-Kris,” she stuttered out. “Kris is… my date…” She snickered once and instantly looked away from her father’s eyes.

Rudy was silent for a second. Then, he suddenly bursts out into a near-manic fit of laughter, one that not even the coughing fit it caused could stop. “Kristmas is your date? Now I have heard EVERYTHING!” He paused to catch his breath and looked on at his daughter's growing embarrassed expression with amusement. _Really wishing I had a camera right about now!_  he thought to himself as he allowed his daughter's absolutely priceless expression bring him much joy.

Noelle suddenly stood up and walked up to her father's bedside. “Before you say anything about Kris or how you think he’s not fit to be my date or something along those lines, I need you to tell me something vital!” She took another step forward, all the while fixing her father with a hard look. “What do you know about Kris’ childhood. In particular, his adoption by the Dreemurrs.”

Rudy’s smile dropped as he raised an eyebrow. “Noelle... why do you want to know something so… specific?” he asked with mixed concern and trepidation.

“Dad, I just… I need to know...” Noelle answered, grabbing hold of her father's arm. “It feels like there’s something I’ve forgotten about him... and it’s tearing me up inside! I just… just need to know. Please!”

Rudy can’t help but give in to his daughter’s request. Despite the alarm he was feeling at the prospect, the buck could understand where Noelle was coming from. He couldn’t think of something more horrible than not being in the know about something so important and so close to home.  _Besides, I am…_

Rudy cut off his own thoughts and cleared his throat. “Okay kiddo, but what I’m about to tell you… it’s kind of something that we don’t like to bring up—you know, me and Asgore and Toriel and Asriel and your mom. It’s… hard to believe and it's not exactly a... happy story.” He grabbed his daughter’s hand. “Last chance to back away from this,” the buck said, his expression suddenly turning stern. "Once you know this... I doubt you'll ever see Kris the same way again..."

Noelle thought about it for a second, but her desire to know pushed her forward with her resolve.

“Yes, dad. I’m ready to know,” Noelle resolutely replied to her father's warning.

Rudy nodded once, took a deep breath, and set his eyes directly on his daughter’s.

“It started on what should have been a normal spring morning 12 years ago…”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“Hey Rudy, you sure you’re up for this?” Asgore asked me as I struggled up yet another craggy mound.

"You watch!" I shouted back, laughing my friend's jab off as I brought myself up the edge of the mound, panting as I felt my weak arm muscles beg me for a respite.

It was a lovely summer day; clear skies, warm sun, and crisp and refreshing air without unwanted winds. I looked down at all the height I had somehow already covered. I could just barely see the camping grounds in the distance, where I could scarcely recognize the shapes of Toriel, Carol, and Noelle sitting by a picnic table. Even from so high above, I could still tell the trio were having a good laugh at watching Asgore, Asriel, and I tackle Mount Ebott. As I continued my climb, I found myself wondering just what Tori and Carol were talking about. Knowing them though, it was probably something involving Noelle and Asriel, the town at large and whatever gossip was making the rounds or Carol’s sudden interest in politics.

I looked up and saw both my best friend and his 6-year-old kid nearly twenty meters ahead of me, standing on top of a boulder and looking downhill at me. Asgore had what looked like a mixture of concern and amusement at my inefficiency climbing plastered on his face, and his kid seemed to gaze on with a semi-excited, semi-dramatic stare that was one single turn of the lips away from being a mocking grin. I, of course, knew Asriel pretty well to remember the kid would never willingly make fun of someone else, but I’d be lying if I said that the kiddo didn't give me those vibes.

I laughed, both at my own thoughts and at his mixed expression. I knew damn well he was too sweet a kid to even consider such ideas! Asgore and Toriel had made damn sure to raise Azzy to be the perfect little angel. It also helped that he had inherited his parent's kindness, to the point that it might have been a little detrimental. A part of me still found it a bit ironic that Toriel, the woman who only eight years ago was a leather jacket-wearing, curse spouting, party going and booze hounding rebel had birthed such a perfect little specimen of angelic pureness...

I struggled up that last incline on the hill and fell on my back soon as I reached the summit, taking deep breaths to recover my stamina. Deer were NOT meant to climb up mountains vertically. Had this trip been about a pleasant stroll through a meadow, things would be playing out SO much differently right about now. Still, I had made it up and conquered a literal mounting. Sure, it wasn't really that tall a mountain if I really wanted to get technical... but a mountain was a mountain dammit!

"Rudy, why are you resting? We still have a little bit more before we reach the summit," Asgore suddenly said as he stood next to me.

I shook my head and laughed. "Good one! We're here already!"

Asgore shook his head and pointed to my right. As I turned to look at the direction he was motioning to, I could feel my stomach start to grow very cold. Turns out I hadn't yet reached the summit as I thought but had just reached a ridge that just so happens to feel like a summit.

I couldn't help but laugh at how I so grossly miscalculated my achievement.

After some more struggling and finally giving in to Asgore’s suggestion that he haul my ass up the rest of the mountain like a sack of discarded grass cuttings, the three of us make to the real summit of Mount Ebott. As Asgore put me down, I got a good look at his toned pecs and swollen arms. As I did, I had to ask myself how Asgore—former geek and all-around pushover both in high school and college—had gotten so damn strong? A single one of his biceps was as wide as my head, and even though he was already starting to let himself go—especially around the belly—the guy’s ‘fat’ as some people called barely had any real effect on diminishing his stoic mass! _Never piss Asgore off_  I told myself as I stood back up. ‘Never piss off Toriel either’ I added with a shudder. She was a terror in her own way, far sturdier than most would dare believe a housewife could be. She was probably more terrible than Carol ever could be, and she had knocked me out cold once...

“Golly! I don’t remember Mount Eboot being this high up in the sky!” I hear Asriel say out loud.

Asgore, as usual, gruffly laughs in reply. “You were a lot younger the last time we made this climb. You probably remember things very differently.”

“Or... maybe we were in some crazy weird alternate reality where the mountain was much higher!” Asriel retorted with the same big goofy grin I had seen Asgore make so many times in our youth.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the kid's words. “I think if that were the case, your pops and I would remember that too, kiddo!”

Asriel crossed his arms and pouted. “Gosh darn it, I so wanted that to be the real case!”

I looked at Asgore, who had the widest grin on his face. I couldn’t help but laugh again, the old goat joining me not long after. Even Asriel joined in on the giggling as she all sat down by a nearby tree to watch the sunset.

“Hey, Asgore. How are we getting down once the sun’s gone?”

Asgore pointed to a trail not that far from where we were. I walked up to it and inspected it, seeing that it was a very well marked road that snaked all the way down to the base of the mountain.

I turned back to Asgore. “Why didn’t we use this to get up here?”

Asgore laughed. “If we had, we would still be walking right now. Climbing the face was a much quicker route.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. At least the trip back down wouldn’t be as arduous as the trip up.

I decided to take a seat by a nearby rock to take in the scenery. Hometown looked so small from so high above. The surrounding woods made it seem as if the town was separate from the rest of the world, which considering how out-of-the-way our little town really was, might have just been the case. Still, when I thought back to how hectic college had been in Ebott City, Hometown really was the best place to grow old and raise my kid.

Just like that old saying went: you could always come back home.

As I gazed to my left, I noticed that Asgore was also sitting calmly by, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the cool breeze and setting rays of the sun. I found it odd that despite the blowing winds, his bushy beard looked to be stable, almost as if it was a solid block of matter and not a gathering of golden hairs. It was a bit amusing to think back to our college days and remembering the goat's once baby-smooth face. Still, I would have been lying if I said I didn't think a beard suited him nowadays. Made me a bit jealous, actually, my goatee and thin mustache having nothing on that great gathering of manliness.

I looked around some more, expecting to see Asriel sitting next to his father and being just as transfixed on the sunset, but the kid was nowhere to be found. I stood up and looked around some more, but couldn’t locate hair nor hide of his anywhere nearby.

I looked at Asgore, who was enjoying watching the sunset. “Hey, where did Azzy go?”

Asgore snapped out of his little trance and turned to face me. “Why, he’s right next to—” he stopped in his tracks the instant he turned to his right, only to find empty air. “Uh… where’s IS Asriel?” he questioned in a more concerned tone.

“That’s what I was just asking you!” I snapped back at the big oaf.

Asgore stood up and began looking around. “Asriel!” he began calling out. “Child, where did you get to?” he asked as he began pacing around the summit in search of his kid.

While Asgore looked around the general vicinity, I decided to be a bit more thorough with my search. Asriel couldn’t have gotten far anyway, but he was an adventurous little goat. He was also cautious and intelligent enough to know better than to get himself into trouble. Still, we were pretty high up a mountain with lots of room for someone to fall over an edge or roll down a hill...

I started walking around the admittedly small summit section. There honestly wasn’t many other places for the kid to get to. Sure, there were plenty of bushes rocks for the little guy to be hiding in or behind, but Asriel didn’t strike me as the type to pull pranks. But as I looked around some more, I heard some footsteps coming from not too far from where I was. I looked around the general area where I thought I heard the sound come from, and after a bit of searching, a small cave entrance just barely visible behind some foliage came to view. I had to slouch just to be able to make it inside, but once I did, I was met with an incline leading into an opening that was far larger than the exterior opening had led me to believe.

I stepped back out and turned around. “Hey Asgore, I think I found something!” I called out to my friend, who came rushing to me in record time. We looked at each other first, then to the opening in the mountain.

“You think Asriel went in there?” Asgore asked me.

“Either he went in there, or he decided to take a little tumble down the mountainside,” I replied, giving my friend a look that he hopefully understood as me trying to liven up the mood.

Asgore nodded in reply, and the two us crouched to enter the cavern. We carefully slid down the incline and touched on the rocky floor, at which point we were able to really take in the sights before our eyes.

The cave was surprisingly well-lit thanks to an opening near at the very top of the mountain. In the middle of the chamber was what looked like an abyss leading deep into the heart of the mountain. Standing at the edge of that abyss was a small child-like figure. They sported long brown hair, a striped green and yellow sweater, and dark brown shorts. The clothes on the child-like figure looked dirty, worn, and even ripped in places. The light shining on them made it difficult to tell what kind of monster they were, though they looked humanoid enough to almost pass for an honest-to-goodness human. _Just imagine that... a human all the way in Hometown... That would certainly be something,_  I thought to myself.

Standing not that far from the child-like being was Asriel, worry written in his eyes as he looked to the figure standing so close to the edge of that abyss. I could tell he had already said something but had gotten no reply.

Asgore wasted no time in walking forward. “Asriel, what’s... going on?”

Asriel turned around to face Asgore, his expression grim and filled with anxiety. “Dad, I’m sorry if I got you worried! I-I was walking around the mountain looking for something to do until the sun fully set when... I-I-I heard sniffling coming from this cave... so I rushed here and slid on the incline there but I’m okay now but I found this other kid here looking all sad and upset so I tried talking to him but h-he’s... been ignoring me and I’m starting to get REALLY worried because he just keeps looking at the hole there like he... like h-h-he wants to jump in!” Asriel literally blurted out, wasting absolutely no breath in telling everything there was to tell. “D-dad… th-the k-k-kid... h-he’s a... a-a... human... A real-life h-human!” Asriel ecstatically added.

My eyes went so wide I could almost feel them wanting to pop out of their sockets. As I glanced sideways towards Asgore, I also noticed his eyes were just as wide—no, somehow they were even WIDER—than mine! We hadn’t expected to ever see a human this far out in the countryside. Heck, human were a rare sight in most major cities this side of the country to being with, most of them either residing way out west or south, the few that lived in the area already the result of mixed parentage with monsters. The fact alone that a human was in Hometown was grounds for a combination of celebration and concerns.

After all, humans could be dangerous. VERY dangerous...

As I stared at the backside of what was likely a child no older than four or five, I couldn’t help but ask myself what a human—one so young and raggedy looking—was doing in what would have otherwise been a pretty unremarkable town in the literal middle of nowhere? Were his parents also around town, and if so, were the new tenants?

Much to the shock of Asgore and me, Asriel began to slowly approach the human child. “Hey! A-are you okay?” he softly called out to the kid. “I greeted you earlier, but you ignored me... C-can you hear me now?”

At first, the human seemed to just stand around as if completely deaf, his attention still set on the abyss before him. After a few seconds, however, he slowly turned around to face Asriel. It was then that I noticed that the child’s eyes were covered by a curtain of brown hair, his expression blank yet intense. His yellow-toned skin looked sickly pale, several spots caked in grime and dried blood that looked as if it had accumulated over the course of weeks. Near the kid's ankles, the dirt was so thick that it looked like a second layer of skin.

The human eyed Asriel first, then he turned his attention to Asgore and myself. As he did, he reached out with a trembling hand into a pocket on his shorts. With a single step back, he brought out what looked like a blue plastic knife, which he then pointed at the three of us, his expression finally emoting into one of barely restrained terror. He opened his mouth, but rather than words, only a mournful moan escaped his lips as he held his ‘weapon’ aloft with a shaky grip.

Despite the display of aggression coming from the boy, Asriel decided to take another step forward. “H-hey! It’s... o-okay.... It’s okay! It’s just my dad and Mr. Rudy!” he started, putting on a big wide smile in the hopes of getting the human to ease a bit. “They're friends. Friends!”

Unfortunately, it seemed like our presence was having the opposite effect of what Asriel wanted. It made the human stand more on edge, his expression turning more and more savage, all the while the grip on his toy knife continued to tighten to the point that his hand was slowly turning even paler.

I turned to Asgore. “We might have to make a run for it if the human’s violent,” I whispered to my friend. Asgore nodded in reply but kept his eyes glued on both his son and the human child that threatened violence. I don’t think I had ever seen him look so determined to prevent a catastrophe before, the crease on his brow not befitting him one bit.

The human child suddenly let out a yell of warning at Asriel, who much to my surprise did not recoil in shock at the display of hostility. He did flinch though, but I think only because of the suddenness of the act, and not the fact that he was facing down a being that could end his life in a matter of seconds without even really trying. I had to give him some props for the bravery he was showing for a seven-year-old kid. Any other monster would have turned tail and ran away from the human.

“Asriel!” Asgore suddenly yelled out. Before I could tell my friend to stay, he rushed forward to shield his son from what he had no doubt perceived as an active threat to his kid. That, regrettably, only made it appear as if Asgore had taken the initiative to attack. The human thus acted out in retaliation to what he no doubt believed was some kind of assault.

I watched in complete horror as the human child lunged at Asgore, who rather than picking up Asriel and booking it to the cave entrance as myself or any other monster would have, instead raised an arm to act as a shield between his kid and the human. Though the human child was stopped in his tracks, he still managed to bring down his ‘weapon’ on Asgore’s arm. I looked on with a wide-eyed stare as the knife, nothing more than a toy in the hands of a monster, cut right into my friend’s muscled arm, embedding itself on his bicep as if the plastic was sharpened steel.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, the event before me acting as a grim reminder of just what a human could really do if they had enough intent to harm a monster… and the attacker was a mere child. If a human adult really wanted a monster dead, I was pretty sure all they would have to do is look at one intensely enough, and that poor monster's head would explode... or something along those lines.

Asgore managed to push the human child away. The human, in turn, pulled the knife out of Asgore’s arm and gradually stepped back, his hair parting long enough for me to get a good look at his eyes.

Instantly, I felt a shiver run down my back as I noticed that the human kid’s eyes glowed a fierce red, something that I had only read about in books while in college. Whoever the human kid was, his harmful intent was beyond anything I could have first imagined. He had more than enough power to kill us all... Worse, if he decides that he was not content with dusting the three of us and went down the mountain looking for more victims… there wouldn’t be a single individual in town who would be able to stop him, every new monster he killed only fueling his Level of Violence further and further... until the kid was a nigh-unstoppable god of death.

I began considering our options. Asgore and I were probably strong and fast enough to overpower the kid. If we could disarm him, our survival chances shot up considerably. Still, the problem was he could still punch and kick us, which while survivable at first, would eventually take its toll on our bodies. What other option did we have though? Dealing with humans was not something we had planned on when we went hiking today. Heck, dealing with crazed violent humans was something no monster could do. The only thing that could stop an irate human... was another human.

“Asriel! What are you doing!?” I heard Asgore call out to his kid. I snapped out of my train of thought I turned to look at the sudden commotion.

Despite having just seen his father be harmed in such a vicious way, Asriel had moved away from the protective grasp of his father and was now mere feet away from the human child. The human, in turn, had again raised his weapon in preparation to strike at the young goat, though the trembling of the human's hands had increased, and the sharpness of his glare had dulled somewhat, likely because he now stood facing another person closer to his age group, and he didn’t quite know what to make of it.

Asriel took yet another step forward and sighed deeply before putting on a big warm smile. “Uh… h-howdy again! I-I’m sure you’re feeling a bit… scared... right now. I-I-I mean, I would be too if I was standing in a big dark cave like this and I was surrounded by big monsters! B-but everything’s... going to be okay. I promise!” He slowly continued inching forward, the human kid’s eyes darting between Asriel, Asgore, and myself, all the while sweat continued forming on his face. “M-my name’s Asriel Dreemurr,” Asriel continued, pointing to himself. “I’m a fluffy goat monster!” he then pointed at the human. “W-who… are you?”

The human lowered his knife as his expression started to grow somber. He seemed hesitant to say or do anything in response to Asriel, yet it didn’t seem to be hesitation borne from a sense of malice. It was hard to explain, but now that the human looked calmer, I could tell that my earlier interpretation of his violent outburst might have been hasty, as while still showing signs of high harmful intent, it didn’t seem to be spiteful... but instead defensive.

That made me wonder just what could have happened to the human kid in the first place to make him act out as he was?

Despite all the warning signs being on visible display, Asriel kept on walking towards the human, arms wide and smile on his face.

The human, for his part, only kept staring with a mixed expression of fear, confusion, and hesitation.

Yet, the moment Asriel got inches away from him, the human’s expression finally settled on a look of sorrowful anger as he let out another yell and lunged forward, toy knife raised and ready to be brought down upon the young goat.

At that moment, the very air left my lungs. Though I instinctively wanted to look away to spare myself the horror that was to come, I forced myself to keep a diligent watch, all the while preparing myself to jump between Asriel and the human. It would probably hurt like hell, but unlike Asriel, I could probably survive such an attack.

Probably...

...

But then something happened I hadn’t expected...

Asriel closed the gap between himself and the human in a single forward stride, his arms wrapping themselves around the kid in a tight welcoming embrace that left the human very little room to continue his charge. “It’s okay,” Asriel whispered as he tightened his embrace. “You are safe with us...”

The human at first replied with grunts and whinnies as he desperately tried to push himself away from Asriel’s hug. Asriel only responded by further tightening his embrace, all the while gently running a hand on the back of the human’s head in an attempt to soothe the almost feral child.

“N-n-no one’s going... to hurt you…. W-we’re all friends here! Y-you, don’t have to hurt a-a-anyone any...more…” Asgore’s kid whispered shakily, a sniff escaping him close to the end.

At first, it seemed like Asriel’s warm embrace and his soothing voice were having little effect on the still wild human, but after a few seconds of silence, I saw the human’s eyes shimmer in the faint glow of the dying rays of light.

The human kid, at last, eased in his struggling, and rather than fight against Asriel’s embrace, entirely gave into it. Little by little and very shakily, the kid's arms wrapped themselves around Asriel’s body. As he did, he dropped the toy knife and grabbed on to the young goat as if his very life depended on it.

The human began sniffling, his whole body trembling as a mournful wail began to escape him. Seconds later, the human entirely broke into full crying, his legs giving out, forcing both himself and Asriel to fall on their knees, his cries so heart-wrenching that I couldn’t help but feel tears form in the corners of my own eyes.

I turned to look at Asgore, who just stood there as dumbfounded as I was. Neither of us could actually believe what we were seeing...

As unbelievable as it was that Asriel had found a way to calm the wild human, I honestly couldn’t help but feel like we were playing with a fire that could rage out of control at any second.

Yet, I would be an absolute idiot to deny that the sight before me wasn’t filling me with the hope.

Maybe... just maybe... monsters and humans, despite all the animosity and separation caused by that damnable war, could find some way to come together...

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

“Yeah, it was certainly a sight to behold, one that no one would believe. So we kept it mostly to ourselves...” Rudy sighed as he looked deeply into Noelle’s eyes. “After Asriel and Kris—we still only called him ' the human' at the time since he didn't yet have a name—finished their crying, we all went back down the mountain. Asriel never once let go of the kid’s hand neither. He talked to the kid, joked with the kid, assured the kid that he didn’t need to hurt anyone anymore…” Rudy gently laughed. “Yup. Asriel was the hero that evening. Imagine that, a kid of seven managing something neither Asgore or me could do!” the buck slapped his knee again and laughed more heartily, eventually leading to yet another coughing fit.

Noelle, for her part, could hardly believe what Rudy had just told her. She was almost half tempted to call her father out on making up the story, but the intensity with which he had narrated those days’ events made it difficult to call it anything other than fact.

_To think that Kris..._  Noelle began thinking but quickly turned her thoughts away from that. “What happened next?” she asked her father. She was about to add the extra questions of where she was during the whole event, but she felt that needed its own separate line of inquiries.

“Well, after we got down from the mountain, Carol and Toriel were waiting with dinner, and you had already fallen asleep. After Asgore finished explaining the whole situation to Toriel, we decided to take Kris to the hospital. Carol took you home, and I accompanied the Dreemurrs just in case things got dicey again. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Kris was admitted into the hospital without issue, but the Dreemurrs stayed overnight because of Asriel, who refused to leave Kris' side. I also stayed to keep them company, but had to leave early in the morning to keep an eye on you while Carol went to work.”

Noelle nodded at her father’s words. She wasn’t at all surprised to hear about what Asriel did that day, as in all honesty, it really was something she could imagine the goat doing without giving it a second thought. Asriel was a kind, caring person… one that sometimes felt too good for a world that could be harsh and cruel. If there were more people like him, then maybe things would be different... and there wouldn’t be a need to resort to violence.

Noelle couldn’t help but bitterly chuckle at her own thoughts. Wishful thinking would one day be the doom of her, she was sure of it.

Rudy sighed and turned to look up at the roof. “I’m sorry to disappoint with this next part kiddo, but everything that happened after I left the hospital comes from what Asgore told me later, so I wasn’t exactly a witness to it.”

Noelle nodded in reply.

Rudy again cleared his throat. “Okay. So, to make a long story short... the doctors found out that Kris had been severely malnourished. In fact, if the three of us hadn’t found him when we did, he probably would have only lasted another day. He had to be left in the hospital a couple of days to fully recover, Asriel refusing to leave the kid’s side the whole time. While that happened, the police ran a background check, only to find nothing!” Rudy again let out a soft chuckle. “It was almost as if Kris had just… suddenly materialized from the blue…”

“Um… where was I during all of that?” Noelle suddenly asked her father. “Did I… play any role at all?”

Rudy shook his head. “Nope. You were pretty oblivious to the whole thing. You were either at school or at home. Heck, you and Asriel weren’t even that good of friends... until Kris came into the picture and sort of ‘bridged’ things.”

Noelle nodded in acceptance, but something still didn’t quite add up in the back of her mind, almost like there was something not just missing, but actively hidden from her. Yet, the more she tried to think about it, the more enigmatic that ‘something’ became.

“At any rate, after Kris was all better, he was released to police custody. But as expected, the kid got all violent at the idea of strangers coming to take him away. Again, it took Asriel to calm him down. Because of the… unforeseen circumstances, the mayor at the time stepped in and let the kid stay with the Dreemurrs until proper human authorities could arrive. But since the closest human agency that could handle the situation was located in a city several hundred miles away, it would take quite a while. Still, the Dreemurrs were more than happy to have Kris stay with them, especially since the kid had started opening up not just to Asriel, but also to Toriel and Asgore.

“Days later, the human child protection agents arrived. They ran their own check on Kris and equally found nothing to identify him. They concluded that the kid was probably a homeless child who had been wandering the countryside for months, especially since he showed signs of stunted mental and emotional growth. The agents thanked the Dreemurrs for their cooperation and prepared to take Kris with them, but they noticed just how happy the kid was with the Dreemurrs. In fact, next to Asriel, Kris almost looked normal. The agents ended up suggesting another course of action: that the Dreemurrs adopt Kris. It would be good for the kid, good for human-monster relations as a whole, and would probably save the kid the future trauma of growing up in an orphanage, waiting for an adoption that may never come.

"As expected of them, Toriel and Asgore more than happily agreed. Before anyone knew it, Kris was adopted and was named Kristopher Dreemurr, or Kris, as you know him today.” Rudy again sighed and gave his daughter a wide toothy grin. “And that’s how Kris got adopted by the Dreemurrs and came to a part of our little town!”

“Thanks for telling me, dad. It… means a lot to me," Noelle warmly told her father.

“Of course!” Rudy answered with a broad smile. “Still... why did you want to know so badly?”

Noelle pauses her thoughts for a second. She had almost forgotten what had prompted her curiosity so much, but now that she was reminded of it, she couldn’t help but feel a bitter taste in her mouth. Still, as uneasy as it made her feel, she felt she needed to let her father know.

“Well… a part of it has to do with what I talked to you about this morning. How I really want Kris to be the happiest he can be.” Noelle started, her eyes set on her father’s. “But the main reason I had to bring it up… has to do with something mom told me before I rushed here to see you.”

Rudy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Let me guess. She said something about how it would have been better if Kris had never gotten adopted in the first place and how it would have been better to leave the poor kid to his fate on the summit that day.”

Noelle’s eyes go wide with shock. “That’s… almost word for word what she said!”

Rudy bitterly chuckles. “Oh, Carol… still holding on to that familial grudge, I see...”

Noelle tilts her head to the side in confusion.

Rudy again chuckled. “Your mother and her family… they aren’t exactly too fond of humans. Carol’s the mildest of them, but the rest of them are... for lack of a better term, straight up bigots!” he remarked with what almost sounded like another chuckle.

“But… why?” Noelle couldn’t help but ask.

Rudy closes his eyes and lets out a drawn-out exhale. “Honestly, I’m not 100% sure, but from what she’s told me, it has to do with some business that happened centuries ago. Something to do with one of Carol’s ancestors falling in love with a human, who then left her once he discovered she had gotten pregnant.” Rudy laughed somberly. “You know, that old ‘I didn’t think humans and monsters could have kids’ excuse and whatnot. Thankfully, the child looked monster enough that barely enough paid any attention, but after that deadbeat skipped town, she swore by the Angel’s light that she, along with any of her descendants, would forever curse all humans.” The buck shook his head with mixed amusement and disappointment. “The day Kris showed up on the summit of Mount Ebott, she was up and arms about how he would cause the downfall of this town and would open up the community to more of his kind. She wasn’t at all happy when the Dreemurrs adopted the kid either. That, along with plain drifting away and Carol becoming mayor was one of the main reasons we kinda stopped having as many family gatherings with the Dreemurrs as we used to.”

Noelle had absorbed all of the father’s words, yet as she tried to process then, she found herself not fully able to. She looked down at her hand, a mixture of shock, enlightenment, and even some embarrassment filling her heart. As she extended and closed her fingers over and over, she couldn’t help but wonder just how much of her makeup was human… if there was any left after centuries.  _I mean, I don’t bleed and can do magic… that makes me a full-on monster. Right?_  the doe asked herself.

Rudy grabbed one of her daughter’s hands. “Hey, it’s okay if you feeling weighty about that revelation, but it honestly doesn’t even matter anymore! All of that happened so long ago that whatever human genes you have in you are so little that they might as well not even be there. Not that being part human is a bad thing.” Rudy put on a wide toothy grin. “Some of the best people I knew back in college were mixed monster and human! Sure, they didn’t always have it easy, what with people being as bigoted as they still are, but things have changed!”

Noelle returned her father’s grasp and smiled back at him. She honestly couldn’t argue with his optimism.  _Besides, this new revelation may be a good thing! I can use it to better understand Kris. Who knows, maybe it can even lead to… something more…_  Noelle felt her cheeks warm up at those thoughts.

“Anyway, I hope I answered all your lingering questions kiddo,” Rudy started, derailing all of Noelle’s thoughts near instantly. “Now, I believe a certain young lady has a dance to go to, and a certain young man that’s waiting for her there!” he pointed to the clock with his free hand. “And sadly, it seems like that young lady’s running out of time with her father,” he stated with a snicker.

Noelle looks up at the clock and sees the time:

 

7:30 PM

 

Noelle’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “How did so much time pass by?” she uttered out loud in a panic.

Rudy heartily laughed. “When you get engrossed in a good story, time tends to disappear!”

Without wasting another second, reached into her purse and pulled out all of her cosmetics. “Dad, I need to freshen up, like, RIGHT NOW!”

Rudy again laughed, once again noticing how his daughter never seemed to look any less presentable despite her saying otherwise. “You go and do that sweetie!” he buck exclaimed in a jovial tone.

The doe rushed into the bathroom and instantly began re-applying her makeup and deodorant before brushing her hair and putting on more hairspray to keep her mane in line. As she went through the routine, she couldn't help but think back to everything her father had told her about Kris’s adoption. To think that the boy she had known since childhood had carried such a heavy weight on his shoulders for so many years...

_Does he even remember?_  Noelle asked herself as she brushed down her hair. _Is that why he’s always had such a hard time making friends with others? His closeness to Asriel always struck me as nothing more than big sibling worship. But now that I know the truth… it all makes sense..._

Once finished with her hair and makeup, Noelle sat on the toilet bowl lid to take off her sneakers.

_Without Asriel, Kris seems lost… vulnerable. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to not have the one person in your life that you trust unconditionally…_

As she put on her slippers, she felt another wave of determination fill her being. Regardless of what anyone else told her or how it looked, she was going to do everything in her power to make sure Kris never again felt alone or abandoned.

_I may not be able to take Asriel’s place… but I'll still do everything that I can to try!_

With slippers back on and her appearance back up to proper standards, Noelle exited the bathroom. “Dad… I’m going to have to leave my sneakers here if you don’t mind,” she told her father, putting the running shoes next to the couch.

Rudy laughed. “Kiddo, you don’t need my permission for something so minor!”

Noelle nodded and sighed. “Well… I guess this is it then.” She looked at her father in the eye. “I’ll see you later dad. I’ve… got a dance to attend.”

Had Rudy been able to, his ear-to-ear grin would have gone much further beyond. “You have a good night now kiddo. Go knock him out cold!”

Noelle took a deep breath of air and walked out the door, head held high and heart fluttering over what was to come that night, her every step filled with purely determined vigor.

 

* * *

* * *

 


	8. FACE TO FACE PT. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces begin moving into place...

* * *

* * *

It felt like forever since either Kris or Susie had laughed as much as they were now. Something about the sudden release was cathartic to the two, almost like a much-deserved reward after a long and arduous trek.

As the two youths slowly eased on their giggling fit, Kris was first to outright stop as other thoughts began infiltrating his mind. Susie laughed for a bit longer than Kris, less because she was actually amused by the situation she had been a part of, and more because she wanted an excuse to dissolve the awkwardness gradually building between herself and her human companion. She didn’t want to admit it, but she didn’t want the laughing to ever end, as it gave her an excellent excuse to let loose in a way that didn’t involve harming anything or anyone… or enjoying the harm done to anything and anyone.

Kris cleared his throat as he set his eyes on to Susie. “I think we should… finish getting ready,” he said with surprisingly little fanfare considering just how jubilantly the two had just been laughing a minute ago. “If we don’t hurry up, we’re not making it to the dance on time.”  
  
Susie raised an eyebrow at Kris’ remark. “Hey, don’t rush me,” she retorted swiftly retorted. “We still have hours before the dance starts,” she added, her lips rising into a grin of utmost confidence. “It’s not like anyone even expects us to be there. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind if we were fashionably late!”

Kris would have agreed with Susie, had it not been for the fact that he was also meeting Noelle at the dance. Just the thought that he would somehow have to juggle being with two lady friends made his head spin. ‘How am I ever going to manage,’ he asked himself, his face turning a shade paler at the prospect of being found out on his stupid mistake. And to think all of it could have been avoided had he just developed the backbone to tell either of the situations. ‘But I also wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place had I just kept my mouth shut with my mother,’ he harshly reminded himself.

Kris let out a sigh of resignation. ‘No point in getting all mad about mistakes already made,’ he told himself as he pulled out his phone and turned on the display to the current time.

Kris turned back to Susie. “Dance’s starting no later than 8:00 PM,” Kris nonchalantly replied to Susie’s previous statement. “What’s more, we still have to get to school—roughly a 15-minute walk—AND have to get checked in at the front doors. That’s probably an extra 5 to 10 minutes right there, and that’s if we’re lucky and don’t run into any of the chaperones already wearing the giant hawk heads. If we run into those guys… who knows how much longer it’s going to take.”  
  
Susie rolled her eyes but kept a grin on her lips. “Alright, alright. Geez, remind me to never put you in charge of scheduling anything. Sounds like you’d make things super boring with how punctual you like to be.”  
  
Kris laughed. Asriel had always been a super-punctual one. The idea of being late to anything utterly unthinkable to the caprine monster. “You can thank my brother for that little quirk,” he told Susie in reply.  
  
Susie went over Kris’ scheduling plan. It made sense, for the most part. It gave her at least an hour to prepare, but the trip to the school would be cutting it a tad close. ‘Maybe if I cut my prep to 45 minutes…’ she thought before it hit her. She ran it through her head again, and it once again hit her. She wasn’t sure if Kris had misspoken, but she hoped he hadn’t and was saving some kind of surprise for them. She wasn’t going to just sit back and let that be the case though. She wasn’t in first grade anymore, back when surprises had actually been pleasant to her.  
  
The dragon crossed her arms and put on her best blank expression. “Hey Kris,” she began calmly. “Are you actually expecting me to walk from your place, back to the school, knowing damn well that I’ve already walked from the school to my place, and finally back to your place in the SPAN OF A SINGLE AFTERNOON!?” Susie bellowed, eyes narrowing as they began boring right into the human.  
  
Kris froze in place, his coloration draining a bit as Susie’s words sunk in. He honestly hadn’t given much thought on how they would be getting back to school from his house. It wasn’t like he was some expert when it came to date etiquette. The more he thought about it though, the more it made sense. This wasn’t some casual hangout or an afterschool class project; it was a dance, the expectations were MUCH higher. Hell, the whole reason the limo industry even existed in the first place was to accommodate for such events.  
  
Susie, still with arms crossed for effect, cruelly laughed at her friend’s reaction. “You know,” she began, her stare growing sharp as her lips parted, revealing her dagger-like fangs. “Some people would consider it customary to arrive at a dance by car.” She paused, blinked three times, and shifted her pupils away from Kris. “I think,” she said, barely loud enough to be heard by the human.

Before Kris had a chance to retort, however, Susie once more shifted her pupils back on to the human, her eyes narrowing in a show of restrained annoyance. “My point is, you better have some means to get us from here to the school by the time I’m done prepping. Otherwise…” she took one step forward and put her right hand on Kris’ shoulder. “You’re carrying MY ass all the way to the dance!” she hissed through clenched fangs, all the while tightening her grip on the teen’s shoulder, digging her claws into the flesh just deep enough to cause pain without causing any bloodshed; and all the while keeping her almost audibly sharp grin visible on her lips.  
  
Kris felt a dull pang in the back of his head begin to throb in response to the pain on his shoulder. Slowly, it started growing in intensity, clouding his mind and making it harder to think. Already, he could feel that dark demonic entity from earlier trying to grasp at his consciousness.

Kris’ hand shot out and grabbed hold of Susie’s hand on his shoulder. It wanted to harm; it tried to retaliate and destroy. Already, he could see images of himself grabbing on tightly and yanking away, followed by a punch to the dragon’s gut, knowing the air out of the lungs. As Susie collapsed from the sudden shock, he would walk behind her, grab the head, and with one simple yet strong twist of his arms...

‘No!’ Kris thought to himself as he shut his eyes and fought back against the invading thoughts. His will wasn’t quite strong enough to entirely dispel them, but his will pushing against the invading ideas was enough to give him enough room to breathe a little more.

Still, it wasn’t quite enough to overpower that inner darkness begging for a release, but the small amount of mental space he had given himself was enough to allow a memory uttered by the heart to speak loudly to him. One that, if he was honest, he had tried his to bury since hearing earlier that day:

‘It can only attack when you are weak and alone. If Susie is here, her support will help keep it at bay…’

Wasting no more time, Kris set his eyes squarely on Susie. “I will do as you ask… my darling,” he said in the smoothest tone he could muster, all the while giving the upper part of his friend’s palm a few taps of reassurance. When he felt that wasn’t quite enough, he grabbed her other hand and, without giving it much more though aside from striving to look smooth, kissed her hand all the while keeping his face looking as suave and bold as he could manage.

Instantly, Kris felt himself grow ten times hotter. ‘What am I doing?’ he asked himself in a panic as he really thought about his action. Sure, it was all to keep a monstrous entity at bay, but was he really ready to move his relationship to such a level? He wasn’t doing it to tease or to be cheeky after all…

Regardless of what Kris thought, his action had instant results as the pressure in his head began to ease, the ominous presence of that demonic being swiftly leaving him as a sudden and welcomed warmth began filling his whole being. The teen allowed himself a subtle sigh of relief in response. Though now that the immediate danger of possession now over, Kris couldn’t help but stop all thoughts in their tracks. ‘D-did… did I really just…?’ He wondered to himself, not at all shy of asking if he had perhaps taken things a tad too far with the kiss on Susie’s hand. ‘I mean, why must Susie think about me? We just barely became good friends, yet here I am playing the Casanova!’ Kris swallowed a lump in his throat as he set his eyes on his still stunned friend.  
  
Meanwhile, Susie totally dropped her previously held smirk in reply to Kris’ immediate actions, her cheeks blushing to such a crimson tone that for just one second, she feared that her face would burst into flames. ‘Did... Kris… just…’ she thought, her mind half numb as a mixture of embarrassment, confusion, pride, and adoration assaulted her every sense. Taking a look at herself in the nearest reflective surface showed that her very eyes had gone completely blank and full, her pupils seemingly vanishing as if she had just been knocked unconscious. She had to fight the urge to let out a yell as she slowly came to the realization that in one swift move of pure suaveness and gentlemen etiquette, Kris had somehow managed to knock her near out cold. The only reasons she continued standing was due to sheer grit on her part.  
  
As expected of the current situation, the two teenagers stood there for almost a full 5 minutes as the events sunk into their respective heads.

Susie looked as if she had utterly blacked-out while still standing. Her body had gone wholly stiff and her eyes were devoid of their usual sentience, instead looking like a pair of full yellow pupil-less orbs as her jaw hung limply as a very subtle string of stuttering gasps exited from her vocal cords, almost as if she was attempting to speak some type of throaty foreign language.

Kris wasn’t doing much better either. After his little stunt, he felt ready to dive out the nearest window, run to the lake, and jump right inside, cold water be damned. Maybe he could even talk Onionsan into holding him underwater until he cooled off or drowned—whichever happened first.  
  
Susie was first to have her full faculties return. She tried to set her eyes on Kris but found herself physically unable to, as every time she even brought her sight within his proximity, she could feel the temperature around her face rise tenfold. Eventually, she opted to keep her eyes glued to the ceiling, all the while hoping desperately that Kris wouldn’t notice.  
  
“Well...” the dragon began, clearing her throat and squatting to grab her bag, all without so much as looking into Kris’ eyes. “I… um… b-better get started. On that shower…” She tried one final time to look in her friend’s direction, but after once again feeling like her whole body would combust into thousand-degree flames, she spun in place and rushed to the bathroom at a pace that could have easily been described as an Olympic-level sprint. She shut the door behind her in a rather calm, unceremonious, yet quick manner that left Kris wondering how it had even been possible considering how rough the dragon was known to be with all things door-like.  
  
Having finally snapped back to reality, Kris tried to keep his expression as neutral as he could manage. One glance at the nearest reflective surface told him a very different story, however, as his usual olive tone of skin had taken on a faint crimson hue, along with his eyes, which were open so wide that for a second he feared they might just pop right out of their sockets.  
  
Before the teen could be fully at ease though, the bathroom door once again opened. Susie, expression just as blank as his—and still not quite being able to look him in the eye—peeked her head out. “If you open this door, I swear to god, I’m going to rip your eyes out and use them like stress balls.”  
  
Kris, with an audible gulp, nodded in reply.  
  
Susie, once more without special ceremony, closed the bathroom door, leaving the human alone with his thoughts.

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

Susie stood there at first, frozen in place for what to her felt like an eternity. Every once in a while, her glance fell on her right hand and the spot where Kris had landed his gentlemen’s kiss. Much as she hated to admit it, Kris was the first person outside of her long-dead parents to ever kiss her. Just looking at the spot gave her chills and made her whole body warmer. What was more, the feeling now ravaging her heart couldn’t be anything other than hormonally driven excitement and affection, ‘all of it directed at that freak…’ she thought, her brow furrowing at her own traitorous musings. How could she allow such ideas to take root in her mind? It wasn’t like her at all to swoon over a boy like Kris. Sure, he had the most game she had ever seen on anyone her own age, but she’d seen him flirt with enough monsters back in the Dark World to consider herself more or less immune to his charms.

‘If that’s true, then why did his little maneuver work so damn well on me?’ Susie asked herself. The very idea seemed ludicrous, yet unless she had somehow imaged the whole thing happening, Kris had pulled one of his ‘smooth moves’ on her. It made her feel equal parts annoyed and impressed. Perhaps most important of all, it made her feel utterly flustered. She smacked herself in both cheeks and shook her head. ‘Get a grip you stupid whelp! Now’s not the time to be having some existential crisis!’ she exasperatedly told herself. ‘You have things to do and not much time to do them!’  
  
Forcing herself to divert all thought processes away from what had happened just a few moments ago, Susie set herself to work with a newfound force of will. She put down the bag on the toilet lid and began to take out clothing. She had a hard time, considering that just much stuff she had tried to get packed in such a small space. She hadn’t even gotten to take everything, a fact she regretted much. Then again, the sensation of freedom she felt now that she wasn’t tied to her old house anymore was thoroughly blissful. ‘I could really get used to it,’ the dragon thought as she started removing her outfit, all the while trying not to think on the fact that she was getting naked in a bathroom that wasn’t her’s, inside the house of a close friend who may or may not have a thing for her.  
  
It was quite the endeavor.  
  
Susie wasted no more brain cells on the previous train of cognition as she jumped into the bathtub and turned on the faucet. Lukewarm water began drenching her body, a sensation that first felt mildly uncomfortable but quickly evolved to one of bliss when the water automatically began to adjust to just the right temperature, the feeling of warmth caressing her form, the sensation being more than enough to make her feel as if she had stepped into a small piece of paradise. As the water began pooling on the tub and she added some of the apple-scented soap sitting on the side, the dragon felt very tempted to shower at Kris’ place from now on. ‘I mean, that could be a possibility if I play my cards right tonight…’ she thought to herself.  
  
The teen shut her eyes and sighed soon as the words had been fully processed. Usually, she would have banged her head against the nearest wall to stop said thoughts currently going through her head, but the bliss she was feeling, coupled with the bitter memories of just minutes earlier, merged to create a strange concoction of emotions she had never dealt with her whole life.

A part of Susie’s psyche felt sickened by the very notion that she had to ask for help. So many years of enduring pain on her own terms had hardened her too much. Yet, who else could she really turn to for help in Hometown? Everyone practically viewed her as a criminal, a perception she had not once worked to dismiss. Even Kris had held a principally negative view of her just a week before. Through some miraculous twist of fate, The Dark World happened, and through it, she was blessed with a second chance. Now that her eyes were wide open, she had a good chance at fixing everything and starting over, this time with a right foot forward.

But even so, Susie still couldn’t shake the feeling that what she was doing was wrong. Her history with Kris was too sordid for it to feel correct. Just the fact that she had forced herself into his bathroom through deceptive means added to her feelings of apprehension. How could she possibly even ask something so big from a person that had every right to hate her?  
  
As the warm water washed away the collected filth on her body, Susie tried to get her mind on other matters. That turned out to be a bad idea, as her thoughts instantly changed to her nerve-induced trashing of Kris just minutes ago. She frustratedly groaned at the memory. Even if they had both laughed it off, the fact that she had been ready and willing to strike at the one person that was quickly becoming the single most crucial treasure in her life nagged and gnawed at her soul. She sunk into the water, letting a few bubbles escape as she desperately tried to forget the event had ever happened. ‘Kris’ is too damn nice. After that little attack of mine, he had every right to be furious, set officer Undyne on my ass, call me a thug and kick me out of his house… yet he did none of that. Instead, he replied with witticism and a kiss on my hand…’ She put a hand over her face, fighting back a blush as images of the event played back in her head like some kind of scratched record. She honestly couldn’t believe Kris’ boldness at that moment in time…

But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Kris’ boldness was proof that he truly cared about her not just as a friend… but perhaps even as something more. She swiftly stood back up from the tub and grimaced, newfound will and resolution quickly filling her heart. “Starting tonight, I’m going to do everything I can to make it up to him!” she told herself, her cheeks once more burning bright and fierce. “Not a chance in hell I’m going to screw this up! I owe him far too much now!”  
  
With the thoughts finally settled, Susie unplugged the bath and allowed the water to start draining. She had a lot of preparations to get to and not much time left for all of them.

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

Only 5 minutes after the bathroom door had closed did Kris allowed himself a sigh of relief.

The teen wobbled slightly backward, his legs feeling less like sturdy limbs and more like jelly constructs. Kris could almost picture himself dropping at any second, but rather than allowing himself yet another head injury that evening, he rushed into the kitchen and turned on the water faucet. He didn’t even wait for the water to fully start flowing before he shoved his entire head into the sink, letting as much cold liquid drench his head without it being considered a second shower.

“Get a grip!” Kris whispered to himself through clenched teeth. “You’re the one in control here, not that… thing…” he said, flashbacks to the demon’s glowing eyes filling his mind with a sense of dread.  
  
2 minutes, and about a gallon’s worth of water now running down his face and hair later, Kris shut off the faucet and withdrew from the sink, head hung low and panting from a mixture of mental exhaustion and fear. He reached for a clean dishrag and began drying himself, all the while letting his eyes wander the room. He scanned the surroundings until his sight fell on the same reflective surface from earlier. The water had once again dampened his hair, allowing the curtain frequently obscuring his eyes to part, revealing his two bright crimson eyes staring right back at him. Eyes that he now knew weren’t entirely his own...  
  
Kris grimaced. For the longest time, he had sensed that he wasn’t exactly healthy. From the way he carried himself daily to the fact that he was the sole human for miles around, all were proof that he was, in fact, a freak of nature. Yet, the very thought of what his... flaw… could entail to those around him left him feeling utterly helpless—damaged, even. It was one thing for him to suffer the consequences of his deficiencies… it was another for everyone around him to experience them as well.

Kris grabbed to his chest as a dull pain began pounding at his heart. While he could feel the physical resonating within his ribcage, it didn’t quite feel full, almost as if there was a lack of substance outside of what was physically present. The teen gritted his teeth in desperation as somewhere in the back of his mind, a soft yet adamant voice began shouting at him something he desperately had wanted to keep telling himself wasn’t—couldn’t—be true…

‘Maybe. Just maybe… I made a huge mistake by removing that interloper of a heart from my body…’

Kris tried shaking the thoughts out of his mind. He had already come so far without that trespasser. He just had to enforce more self-control. He had to command the urge and tame the beast trying to claw its way into total control. Far too many of his friends and family were right smack in the middle of the danger now.

_LET ME SHOW YOU JUST HOW LITTLE CONTROL YOU REALLY HAVE…_

Those horrible words once again resonated within Kris’ head. At first, he ducked in fear of the demon once again coming to try and take his mind, but when he felt neither pain nor seizure, he allowed himself a small sigh of relief as he leaned against the nearest wall, closing his eyes and concentrating as intensely as he could. It wouldn’t be easy, but he had to prove to that demon that it was wrong about him. Even if it did have a point about his choices ultimately being meaningless, his emotions, desires, instincts… all those things he at least had to try and control. Because if he didn’t get them reigned in… those closest to him would ultimately pay the price for him.  
  
Kris shook his head and stood back up. With no real desire to continue his current train of thought, he settled on other vital matters still needing doing that evening. Namely, finishing his preparations for the dance and calling in a cab. At the thought of calling in a ride, however, he paused. ‘Does anyone in town even run a cab service?’ he asked himself. He… wasn’t sure, truth be told. Hometown was such a small municipality that the fact anyone had cars in the first place surprised him. One could literally walk from one end of the town to the other in less than 3 hours. The only other place where he knew there could potentially be cabs was in Ebott city, and while he didn’t so much doubt a taxi driving all the way to hometown to serve him, he didn’t want to think of how expensive that would be.

The teen reached for his phone and logged into the internet. ‘Only one way to find out, I guess…’ he mused as he began looking through various web pages for an answer. Meanwhile, he headed for the living room and found his dress shirt and dress jacket. In a single motion, he slipped both garbs on and continued his search, when his phone suddenly rang, startling him.

‘What?’ Kris thought to himself as he looked at the caller ID and number, both of which appeared as nothing but garbled unreadable text:

Kris ignored the call and instead went right back to searching for a cab service, only to again be interrupted by the same mysterious call. Kris again pressed the ignore button, just for the call to instantaneously start again as if he had never rejected it in the first place.

‘What the…?’ Kris wondered as he again looked at the garbled text on his phone screen. He was readying to hang up the call yet again when a strange sense of curiosity began growing in him. Something about the garbled numbers summoned to him to answer, the sense of familiarity in those symbols being far too crucial for it to just be some sort of coincidence. It almost felt as if he had seen them before, though just where he had seen such a thing he couldn’t quite answer no matter how much he wracked his brain for an answer.

Despite his more rational and cautious side screaming for him to ignore the phone call, Kris pressed the accept call button with a shaky finger and brought the phone up to his ear. “H-hello?”

There was eerie silence at first, the kind that one only perceives in a room that’s been devoid of all sensory information. Somehow, Kris’s senses even felt devoid of their usual five senses, the world around him seemingly growing darker, yet darker still. Then he heard it, something akin to a faint static blast of technological garble that only grew more and more audible with every passing second. The teen was instantly reminded of all his fruitless attempts at making a phone call while in the Dark World, only this time he was not in that other realm.

Kris fought the desire to hang the call as he kept his ear to the phone and attempted to decipher the gibberish. Little by little, he began to perceive a voice on the other end of the line. It was deep, resonating with an otherworldly reverberation that almost made it sound as if several echoes of the same speech were speaking simultaneously, each layer growing more and more distorted the closer attention he paid to them.

**“YOU HAVE SENSED IT. YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO IT. YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED BY IT. YOU MUST BE FILLED WITH QUESTIONS. QUESTIONS I HAVE THE ANSWERS TO.”**

Kris’ eyes widened in shock at the voice. That tone, that inflection, that weirdly distorted resonation that filled his heart with a primal sense of curious caution and dread… somehow, it was all so familiar to him in a way that shouldn’t have been possible… for never in his life had he heard the voice now speaking to him.

**“I THINK IT IS TIME YOU AND I HAD A… REAL FACE TO FACE TALK.”**

“What?” Kris asked in sheer confusion at what the voice had just said.

Before the teen could say or do anything more, Kris was suddenly standing at the summit of a very tall mountain. Kris almost fell on his rear from the sudden shock of one instant looking at his living room, and the next overlooking his town from several hundred feet above. He tried his hardest to process what had just happened to him, but he didn’t get very far as he abruptly felt something tap him in the shoulder, prompting him to turn around and face whatever had called his attention…

…Only to once again nearly fall flat on his rear as he turned around to see what could have almost passed as a reflection of himself. Except, the humanoid now standing right in front of his eyes was gray all over. Everything about the being was a copy of him: his everyday clothes, his hair, his posture, and even his apple-scented shampoo and deodorant. About the only characteristic missing from the doppelganger—and what itself had led to Kris nearly collapsing from the sudden surprise—was that the gray humanoid had no face at all. No eyes, no mouth, no nose, and no ears.

**“DO NOT MIND HIM. HE’S JUST HAPPY TO MEET HIS... ORIGINAL,”** rang the same voice from the phone, now loud, clear, and just as ominous as before.

Kris turned around to meet the source of the voice, only to come face to face with a humanoid skeleton monster… or at least what looked like one. Except, something about the being defied the categorization of a skeleton, for he didn’t seem to be made of bones at all. He lacked a standard bony jaw like the majority of skeletons, and he looked to have some kind of skin over his frame, one that was thin and pale as bone, yet looked sturdy enough to protect from all weather forms. The figure was garbed in what looked like a long black robe that didn’t seem to be made of cloth, but some kind of material somewhere between a miasma and liquid. Around his neck was some form of thick cotton scarf that would look to be extremely comfy on a cold winter day. The skeleton’s expression seemed to be one of subtle satisfaction, with one of the being’s eyes glowing a faint yellow, while the other was pitch black.

Kris took a step back, his heart racing and pounding against his chest so hard and so fast that he was afraid that at any second it might just force its way out of his body through his esophagus. He couldn’t understand why but seeing the black-robed figure struck a cord of familiarity with him that he just couldn’t rationalize no matter how hard he tried to make sense of. “Wha… what’s going on? Who are you?” he asked the skeleton before turning his sights back to the faceless gray human in front of him. “WHAT are you?” he asked the entity, his eyes drifting back to the skeleton-like figure. “A-and why… why do you seem so… familiar?”

The skeletal figure let out an ominous chuckle. **“IT SEEMS LIKE MY HYPOTHESIS WAS CORRECT AFTER ALL. EVEN IF YOU DID NOT DO THE ORIGINAL MEETING, A PART OF IT REMAINED WITH YOU AFTERWARDS.”**

Kris tried to process the information he had just been told, but no matter how hard he tried, he was coming up with no answers. He had never met such a being as the one now standing before him face to face, yet he couldn’t deny that something in him already had some familiarity with them. The feeling was supremely surreal, to the point that he wondered if perhaps he was experiencing a moment of intense dejavu.

**“I SENSE THAT THERE IS SOME LINGERING CONFUSION. EXPECTED, AND EASILY REMEDIED.”** The figure started, putting a white hand on his chest. Kris noticed that the hand had a gaping hole in the middle of it. Despite its size, it didn’t exist at the other side of the palm as was expected but instead led to an endless void that shouldn’t have been possible by all known laws of reality.

**“I AM A DOCTOR WHO SPECIALIZES IN ALL THINGS METAPHYSICAL. MY… COMPANION THERE IS…”** he put a hand on his chin, his already wide grin growing wider. **“FOR THE TIME BEING, YOU CAN REFER TO HIM AS ‘THE VESSEL.’”**

Kris looked at the ‘doctor’ with a narrowed glared. “What do you want with me?” he asked of the strange being.

**“PLENTY, ACTUALLY,”** the ‘doctor’ replied as he took an eerie glide forward, almost as if the entity had no feet to speak of. **“YOU MAY NOT FULLY REMEMBER OUR LAST MEETING, BUT I CERTAINLY DO.”**

“Meeting?” Kris asked, his body instinctively taking a step backward. “I don’t remember ever meeting…” he motioned to the entity with his hand. “…someone like you,” he finished, his eyes unable to part ways from the strange skeleton-like thing.

**“THAT IS BECAUSE OUR LAST MEETING WAS NOT HELD IN THIS WORLD,” the doctor replied as he pointed a single white finger to his head. “RATHER, IT WAS DONE WITHIN THE CONFINES OF YOUR MIND… AS WELL AS A PLACE THAT IS BEYOND THIS SPACE AND THIS TIME.”**

Kris tried racking his mind for some kind of memory of what the entity was talking about, but aside from hazy recollections that held no real meaning outside of being possible dreams, he was completely drawing a blank of what the skeleton could mean.

**“I ORIGINALLY WISHED TO KEEP THINGS DISTANT. AFTER ALL, A SCIENTIST MUST NOT DIRECTLY INTERACT WITH THE SUBJECT HE IS STUDYING FOR THREAT OF COMPROMISING THE EXPERIMENT, BUT I FEAR THAT THINGS HAVE BECOME… TOO COMPLICATED FOR ME TO SIMPLY CONTINUE WATCHING FROM A DISTANCE. AS SUCH, I AM NOW HERE, READY TO BECOME A PLAYER IN THE COMING STORY.”**

Kris tilted his head. “And… w-who… are you?” he shakily asked.

The doctor let out an ominous chuckle. Kris took a deep breath in preparation for what he was about to hear, as something in his gut told him that the information he was about to hear would prove to be interesting.

Very, very interesting…

**“MY COLLEAGUES… THEY CALL ME…”**

There was a short yet ominous pause, the doctor’s face twisting into one that made Kris feel an icy and sinister vibe resonate with him, almost as if he was a man facing down a concept that his mind had very little hope of wrapping itself around without expecting to somehow wind up going absolutely mad.

**“…WING DING ASTER…”** the entity said, the smile on their lips growing wider. **“DR. ASTER, FOR SHORT…”**

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_- 

When Susie finally stepped out of the bathtub, her whole body shone not just from the cleanliness, but also from the radiance now brightly shimmering within her soul. ‘Oh my god, I never thought a shower could feel THIS good!’ she thought to herself, a wide toothy grin forming on her lips.  
  
After drying, Susie wrapped her body and hair in towels before reaching into her bag. Carefully, she began separating used clothes from fresh ones, all the while looking for the garbs she would wear that evening. As the whelp rummaged through her bag, a part of her already knew that her fancy clothes would be wrinkled to the point of near unusability. That, and the fear that some of the old used smell of her dirtier clothes sticking to them was making her wish she had considered packing things in separate bags.

Susie grimaced. ‘Not like I really had that much time to plan things out,’ she thought as she continued sifting through all the clothes she now owned. As she pushed aside withered undergarments and severely used shirts and pants, she noted to herself how despite stuffing as much as she could into the bag, she still had left behind quite a few articles which her uncle had no doubt used for kindling by now.

The dragon groaned. She didn’t have much in the way of clothes to begin with, so having that number reduced only added to her already heightened stress. Worse, with virtually no money to her name, she couldn’t just walk into a store and pick herself something new to wear. She half-considered going back to that damnable house to recover what had yet been tossed or burned, but the prospects of running into Maug again made her feel sick to her stomach and filled her head with rage.

Susie shook her head. ‘No. Don’t think about that bastard anymore,’ she commanded herself. As she continued sifting through her clothes, she couldn’t help but notice just how little of her outfits would have been considered ‘proper’ wear for a ‘lady.’ It wasn’t for lack of desiring not to wear such things, she just found it difficult to find apparel for her size that wasn’t meant for men. Not like she had much of an option these last couple of years either, as whatever clothes she owned she had bought from thrift stores. ‘Hopefully, all that will change once I get myself out of this mess,’ the young drake though as she thought back to her half-formed plan. Sure, it was a bit of a longshot, but it wasn’t like she had much other option.

Everything rested on how that night played out.

Susie kept looking through clothes in search of her ‘fancy’ garbs, yet as the minutes dragged on, she slowly began to feel a gnawing sensation forming in the pit of her stomach. Little by little her search turned desperate as she began tossing articles to the side just to make sure she wouldn’t stumble into them again. “What the hell?” Susie whispered, digging through her belongings with greater force, going through every single bag in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, she had done a better job packing than she initially thought. But the more she searched, the more she started to realize her subconscious mind was so desperately trying to bury. Gradually, a creeping realization began to form in the back of her mind, one that she couldn’t fully believe for fear of it causing her to utterly break apart. Soon though, the horrible truth became undeniable. She could feel the ice in her stomach rising at the prospect. Sweat again formed in her brow as in one final desperate attempt, she grabbed her bag and turned over, spilling every last piece of clothing she had grabbed during her escape from her abusive household. As her clothes rained down onto the floor and her bag became empty, the drake quickly came to the awful realization that her gut had been warning her about.

“N-no… NO!” Susie exclaimed as her eyes scanned all the clothes now lying at her feet in frantic desperation. Only once her eyes had gotten their fill of the truth did she let herself fall on her knees, a mixture of anger, embarrassment, and shame filling her heart. “How... in the ever-burning pits of HELL AND DAMNATION did I forget… the s-suit!?” the whelp just barely managed to utter without screaming at the top of her lungs. “I thought I… I had packed EVERYTHING!” she continued, her face burning hot with shame and her heart beating at over a hundred miles per hour.  
  
Susie reached up to grab her head, her fingers digging into her scalp, her razor-sharp claws only being stopped from piercing skin by the grace of her scales. The desire to pull her hair out was very much on her mind as her hands slowly fell from her head down to her face, where she at last allowed herself to cover her eyes, less to hide from the shame, and more to keep the tears now welling in her eyes from flowing freely.

‘It’s… it’s not fair,’ Susie told herself as she began to lose her battle against the tears. ‘Why does crap like this keep happening… to me…’ she breathed deep, her breath shaky and bordering on sobbing. ‘Tonight was supposed to be… especial. A chance to start again and get some semblance of a life with… with someone I’ve… I’ve…’ She grit her teeth, the emotions in her mind far too complicated for her to truly process as all the pain, all the grief, all the sharp and unmanageable emotions bottled up over the years slowly spilling out of her being as more and more tears formed. Eventually, she all but stopped caring about whether or not Kris would hear her as she collapsed on the floor, her eyes cascades of bitterness that seemed to have no end.

It didn’t take long for the dragon’s will give out. She let her already crumbled body fall to the side, her limbs instinctively retracting into a fetal position as she closed her eyes and let her mind go blank save for the misery it was now experiencing.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Susie whispered as she allowed herself to be welcomed by the warm embrace of darkness. “I’m… a failure… a monster… and a... murderer,” she said through trembling lips. “I… I deserve this…” she whispered, her voice meek and cracking, her mind slowly going numb.

…

Susie suddenly felt a new warmth enter her body. Little by little, it began filling her being with something she had thought all but abandoned seconds ago: determination.

The feeling was odd; unnatural, even, yet it was also somehow welcoming and so very familiar, to the point that she could almost feel all her previous grief vanishing with every passing second.

A voice called out seemingly from nowhere, almost like an echo in the dark.

Susie’s eyes snapped open as an androgynous voice seemingly resonated from every possible place around her began filling her head with its clear yet indescribably resonant tones.

  


Slowly, the whelp raised her head off the floor as her bloodshot and puffy eyes began scanning her surroundings.

A part of dragon wanted to jump up and lash out against the intruder defiling her at her weakest moment, but the voice in her mind was not only seemingly omnipresent but had a soothing quality to it that defied all her attempts at explaining it.

  


There was a slight pause from the voice.

  


Susie grit her teeth again. “Who… no, WHAT the hell is going on?” Susie half-shouted as she finally took a sitting position. “W-what are you?”

There was another moment of silence before the voice once again returned to resonate deep inside Susie’s mind.

  
  


Susie growled. “What the hell are you going on about!” the dragon shouted, her hands curling into fists. “Are you going to stop being all cryptic or do I have to start punching things!?” she bellow, now utterly unafraid of who might be hearing her. ‘Kris, I swear, if this is one of your damn pranks…’ she thought to herself.

There was a slight giggle that resonated from the voice.

  
  


“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  
  
  
  


Susie shook her head, her glower only growing more and more hardened. “I don’t know who or WHAT you are, but if you don’t get out of my head in the next ten seconds, I’m going to start tearing this whole damn place apart until I find you!” she shouted, a part of her desperately hoping that her bluff wouldn’t be called out.

  
  
  
  
  


The questions caused Susie absolute pause, not only because the counter questions had made too much sense, but also because they divulged information that only she had access to… because she hadn’t yet told anyone else.

A shiver ran up the whelp’s spine as she began considering that maybe, just maybe… she heard a voice in her head, and she had finally snapped from the stress.

“H-how do you know… about my plans?” Susie asked with a voice that was hesitant and staggered.

Susie blinked a few times and looked to the side. ‘Okay, so the voice called my bluff. That still doesn’t change the fact that I can trust anything it says,’ she thought.

  


There was another short pause before the voice again more resumed.

  


Susie tried to make sense of just what the ‘voice’ meant by her previous statement, but a part of her felt like such information wouldn’t lead anywhere useful. In fact, the reality that she was conversing with a disembodied and potentially imaginary voice already didn’t bode well for her mental health, but she kept her attention on the voice anyway. Just in case that it turned out that she wasn’t actually going insane.

The voice went silent for just a second before at last uttering a name that Susie, despite never once having heard in her life before, somehow felt a sense of almost instinctual familiarity with…

...Almost as if it was ingrained into her very being:

 

* * *

 

 


	9. FACE TO FACE Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... And the chessmasters begin to plot

* * *

* * *

Despite the still lingering dread in the back of his mind, Kris couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in response to the name he had just been given by the ‘doctor.’ “Aster,” he repeated to himself, his eyes not once leaving the skeleton. “Dr. Aster?”

The doctor nodded in reply. “ **PRECISELY.** ”

Kris’ eyes narrowed. He had heard of many strange names before, some barely even qualifying as proper monikers, but ‘Wind Ding Aster’ certainly took the prize, and that was considering he already knew of two other monsters named after a typing font: Sans and his brother Papyrus. _...Both of who also happens to be a skeleton…_  he uneasily thought to himself.

At that small revelation, Kris questioned if doctor Aster had some kind of connection to Sans and his yet to be seen brother. Even if there was no direct relation, there was still something familiar between that lazy skeleton and the doctor...

“ **YOU ARE PROBABLY THINKING ABOUT SANS AND HIS BROTHER, AM I CORRECT?** ” Aster suddenly asked.

Kris snapped from his train of thought and turned his full attention back to Aster, who chuckled yet again.

“ **YES, THE TWO ARE INDEED ODD ONES, BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THEY ARE NOT INVOLVED.** ”

Kris wanted to ask why the doctor had been so quick to state the two brothers weren’t involved. _In fact, how had he even know about those two... unless they are actually essential and Aster's playing ignorant…_  the teen pondered. _That only raises more questions than answers though,_  he thought. He opened his mouth to speak again, but at that instant, Aster raised a bony hand to shut him up. “ **I DO BELIEVE YOUR MENTAL PROWESS WOULD BE BETTER USED WITH GETTING OTHER QUESTIONS ANSWERED. SO I SUGGEST YOU TAKE THIS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY AND DO JUST THAT.** ”

Kris’ brain was still trying to make sense of everything that was happening to him as the doctor’s new words pierced into his cognizance, further adding to his feeling of discordance. T _o think that only five days ago I was just a normal—though withdrawn—guy going about life as usual… and now I have to deal with an invading soul, demonic possession, some kind of inter-dimensional ‘doctor’ and his… whatever the hell THAT is,_  he thought as his eyes fell on what would have almost been a perfect doppelganger of himself had it had a face and not being gray all over. _Is this all happening because Susie and I entered the Dark World? I’m still not even sure how we managed that…_

“ **LET ME PREEMPT YOUR FIRST QUESTION,** ” Aster suddenly declared, interrupting whatever train of logic Kris had been forming in his head. “ **YOU ARE INDEED STANDING IN THE SUMMIT OF MT. EBOTT AND YOU WERE INDEED TELEPORTED HERE BY MY ABILITIES.** ”

_That wasn’t what I had in mind…_  Kris pondered as he tried shaking off the rest of this thoughts, his mind instinctively forming a question on his lips: “Why am I here?”

Aster chuckled again. “ **DOES THIS PLACE NOT LOOK FAMILIAR TO YOU? IT IS, AFTER ALL, WHERE YOU WERE BORN.** ”

Kris took a step back. “That’s… impossible…” he whispered in shock.

Aster nodded in reply to Kris’ startling comment. “ **EVERYTHING YOU ARE NOW IS BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED HERE ALL THOSE YEARS AGO.** ”

Kris, for the life of him, couldn’t make sense of what the doctor was saying. To him, the words he articulated were utter insanity. How could something that significant have occurred without him having some kind of memory about it?

Aster snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Kris was again standing in a very different location. It was what looked like a cavern, one that seemed to have been visited by neither human nor monster for a very long time. Or so it would have appeared, had the teen not been stepping on something artificial. He looked down at the floor and detected a blue-colored toy knife, its rubber handle nearly disintegrated from a combination of age and the elements. Yet, its plastic blade still looked shiny; almost brand new.

For reasons that Kris couldn’t quite comprehend, he reached out for the toy and gripped the handle, the rubber on his fingers further disintegrating from the immediate treatment, leaving nothing but the plastic parts, which much like the knife’s edge, looked to be untouched by both time and elements.

As Kris further inspected the toy, he couldn’t help but be flooded with feelings of familiarity. The knife now gripped in his fingers felt so very well-known as to be almost uncanny. He couldn’t understand why, as he was sure he had never once held such an object in his hands before. Even if he had once called the toy his own, it wouldn’t have ended up in the summit of Mount Ebott looking as if it had been abandoned years ago. He’d never been to the summit of mount Ebott, after all. Then it suddenly hit him. Brief flashes of memories that couldn’t be his. Memories of the cavern where he now stood, images of his adoptive father bleeding dust from a nasty gash on his arm, pictures of Asriel, tears in his eyes, holding him in a tight embrace as the desire to harm slowly retreated to a deep recess of his soul…

Kris took a step back, just barely managing to keep his footing as his legs began feeling faint. _How's any of that possible?_  he questioned, all the while feeling as if he wanted to puke.

“ **YOU ARE HAVING A SUDDEN FEELING OF FAMILIARITY, ARE YOU NOT?** ” Aster suddenly chimed.

Kris turned back to the doctor, knife still gripped in his hand. “Wha… what’s going on here?”

It was the strange faceless doppelganger who stepped forward to answer.

First, he pointed at Kris’s chest with his left index finger. Kris followed the finger’s trajectory, at which point his gray copy traced the finger up his chest, right up to his head, where the duplicate pointed to the right side of the cranium with his index finger. The doppelganger then gave a single resolute nod, all the while his right hand went to his chest and formed a closed fist, which the copy then opened and closed in a rhythm that no doubt was meant to emulate a heartbeat.

Kris turned to look at Aster for some kind of explanation. Aster, in turn, only continued smiling. “ **THE VESSEL IS TELLING YOU THAT WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED SECONDS AGO WAS A MEMORY STORED NOT IN YOUR MIND… BUT IN YOUR SOUL. AN EVENT SO RADICALLY IMPORTANT TO WHO YOU ULTIMATELY BECAME, THAT WHATEVER YOU WERE BEFORE WAS… REPRESSED… ALMOST VIOLENTLY SO.** ”

Kris looked between the doctor and the doppelganger, his mind still not quite able to put two and two together despite the flashes of memory he had just been made a witness to. Was it possible that there really was more to him than what he could actively recall?

A chilling, harsh voice suddenly filled Kris’s head. The pain soon followed as a very sharp pang erupted somewhere in the back of his head. He let out a yell as he fell on his knees, tears forming in his eyes as he desperately fought to keep what he feared was that other evil self from coming loose yet again.

Dr. Aster let out a subtle chuckle. “ **IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE VESSEL WAS CORRECT,** ” he said, turning to face his gray companion and giving him a nod of approval. “ **NOW, HOW ABOUT WE HAVE A LITTLE ‘FACE TO FACE’ WITH THAT OTHER SELF?** ” he stated as he walked up to Kris, whose face had started turning red from the force of his struggles.

Dr. Aster slowly reached out towards Kris, his bony hand spread, the black void in the middle of it looking as if it could swallow whole realities.

“N-no…” Kris whispered as he saw the hand approach ever closer. “P-please… NO!” he finally shouted as the hand wrapped itself around his forehead and eyes.

“ **DO NOT WORRY, KRISTOPHER… THIS IS ONLY TEMPORARY…** ” Gaster assured the teen as he allowed a pulse of energy from his hand, one that traveled all through the cavern and beyond.

Kris let out one final breath of air as his world went dark…

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Susie sprung back to her feet, hands already curled into white-knuckled fists and her lips raised into a snarl. “Okay, ‘Chara’,” she repeated, the name sounding odd in her lips as again looked around to make sure she wasn’t being punked by anyone else. “What’s your plan? Your goal? How do you know my name, or Kris’ name, or anything about us!?”

  
  


Susie only growled at the voice’s reply. “That still doesn’t answer my question!”

The voice audibly sighed.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Susie grimaced. “Why should I believe what you have to say!? How can I trust someone I can’t even see? For all I know, you’re just a voice in my head that doesn’t actually exist!”

  


There was silence for another second before the voice once again spoke.

  
  


Susie crossed her arms. “I mean, none of this bull makes any sense to me… but I guess that would go a long ways towards making me believe what you’re trying to tell me.” Susie shook her head. “I’m either going completely insane, or I’m about to get mixed up in some weird crap that’ll just fly over my head.”

Susie’s brow furrowed further. “Okay, start talking. What’s really going on here? Why were you saying that I’m your ‘only hope?’”

There was another deep sigh from the voice.

  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Susie raised an eyebrow. “Birdcage? What the hell are you even talking about?”

  
  
  


Susie considered what the voice was telling her to do. _There’s no way in hell I’m going to do whatever that voice is telling me to do,_  the more rational part of her mind told said. Yet, there was another part of her, one the dragon couldn’t label as anything other than her ‘troublemaker’ side that urged her to take the voice’s request into consideration. _It’s not like you’ve ever seen Kris’ room anyway. Besides, you can’t deny that you’re curious to see how this all plays out in the end,_  that side of her mind slyly urged her.

Susie shook her head. “No. I’m not going to step out of this bathroom. Kris is waiting for me, and I am NOT going to disappoint him any more than I already have!” she bellowed, her thoughts once again painfully snapping back to the fact that she had forgotten her fancy dance attire.

  
  
  
  
  


  
Susie wasn’t entirely put at ease by the voice’s statements. If anything, the idea that she could be all alone in Kris’ home left her with a feeling of guilt over the fact that her friend still thought of her highly enough to entrust his house to her, even after she had knocked his lights out. Regardless though, there wouldn’t be another opportunity quite like the one now neatly laid before her.

After nearly a full two minutes of careful consideration, Susie, at last, sighed in defeat. “I must be totally insane for following the advice of some disembodied voice…” she whispered as she began putting on her usual attire. The instant her shoes were back on, she carefully opened the bathroom door, and after making sure there really was no one around the house, raced up the stairs.

After also scanning the corridor leading to her friend’s room, Susie closed the distance and placed a hand on the doorknob, only to pause in her tracks. _What the hell am I even doing?_  she paused to ask herself. _Am I really about to violate my Kris’ privacy at the behest of a voice inside my head?_  she asked, her hand on the doorknob gently trembling from a mixture of anticipation and shake at the naughtiness of what she had planned. _It’s not too late to turn back. Just walk away and pretend you never even entertained the thought…_

The dragon whelp closed her eyes and sharply exhaled. The curiosity in her was just far too intense for her rational mind to fight back against. She swiftly turned the door handle and stepped into her friend’s room, locking the door behind her just to make sure Kris didn’t accidentally wander in on her as she violated what was likely his sanctuary away from the world.

The last rays of sunlight entering Kris’ bedroom through the few small gaps on his window blinds were just enough to light up the room, bathing a few spots in a golden light while leaving many more in absolute shadow. It was quite an unnerving sight if Susie was honest with herself. Even so, Susie could still see many aspects of the room that surprised her. For starters, the room was far more extensive than expected, looking less like a single bedroom, and more like two rooms whose dividing wall had been torn.

Susie’s eyes first settled on the left side. Aside from the neatly made bed, the walls were lined with shelves, all of which were filled with trophies singing praises for the one who had earned them. On the far end of the wall was a computer that looked ten years too outdated to be functional. Under the neatly made bed dozens of random things ranging from old music CD’s, to a console several generations old, to what looked like old toys from a bygone era—all gathering dust and all looking as if they hadn’t seen the touch of their owner's hand in decades.

Susie turned her attention to the right side of the room next. Unlike the liveliness that the left side of the room shouted, the right side of the room was more barren than a nun’s pornographic collection. Nothing covered the walls, the shelves were devoid of awards speaking of their owner’s academic prowess, nothing lay under the bed to even hint at what the owner enjoyed doing in their off-time, and the bed sitting in the corner looked as if it had never been made. Just as the voice had said, the only thing worth mentioning was that something lay in the rightmost corner covered up by a hastily tossed blanket over something lying in the corner.

Susie hesitated for a second. It wasn’t really in her nature to follow the command of a disembodied voice, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious to see just what the voice’s source really looked like.

With a single motion, the dragon pulled on the blanket, tossing it over the empty bed to the right. The instant the sheet was off, a bright and warm red light bathed the room. The whelp covered her eyes as they adjusted. Only when her eyes were at last used to the new lighting conditions was it that she noticed the glowing crimson form of a floating heart inside a rusty birdcage.

Susie took a half-step backward as she immediately recognized the heart. It was the same red heart that had emanated from Kris every time they had gotten into a battle in the Dark World. It was the stuff that had given them strength in that otherwise alien world.

  


Susie’s eyes were so full with surprise that they threatened to protrude right out of her skull. “Wha… w-what the hell is going on here!? H-how are you there? Y-yo-you’re Kris’ soul!”

“I saw you emanating from Kris back in the dark world, though!” Susie quickly countered.

  
  
  
  


“Y-you’re still a soul!” Susie interjected, her mind now threatening to erupt from the amount of information it was being forced to process. “You’re supposed to be inside of a human! Why are you…” she pointed at the barely holding together rusty cage, “…there?”

  
  
  


  
  


Susie shook her head. “Okay, this is getting too weird for me. This doesn’t make any sense!”

  
  
  
  
  
  


Susie sat on the rightmost bed, her head spinning in ways she couldn’t have imagined possible.

  
  
  


There was a slight pause in the heart’s words.

Susie set her gaze back on the heart. “Hold on a second, you said that you showed up inside Kris the same day that we both got to the Dark world?”

“Were you controlling Kris while we were in the Dark World?”

  
  
  
  
  


Susie’s eyes grew steely. “I don’t like how you speak about ‘control’ and ‘influence’ over Kris; makes it sound like he’s just some kind of puppet to you… and I’m NOT going to stand for that!”

  
  


The heart again paused as if to take a deep breath of air.

  


  


The heart then did something Susie hadn’t at all expected: chuckle.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Susie asked, her brows slowly furrowing.

  
  
  


Susie was about to rebuke the heart, but she paused at their words. The glowing organ had a good point about Kris’ strength. Back in the Dark World, Kris had taken a beating from the King of Spades that would have easily killed anyone else, yet just earlier in the evening, he had gotten knocked out by one of Susie’s punches, and she honestly hadn’t even put her full force behind it. There was also the Dodgeball game. Dark World Kris wouldn’t have lost that ‘battle’ either…

Susie again glared at the heart.

  


Susie’s head perked. “Y-you can… help me?” she asked in a dumbfounded voice.

  


Susie’s eyes narrowed. It was starting to sound way too convenient, and she had seen enough movies where the protagonists made such deals, only to wind up in a whole lot of trouble when a price they couldn’t meet abruptly appeared.

“What’s the catch?” Susie asked as she crossed her arms. “You can’t just be doing this out of some sense of goodwill. Crap like this always has some kind of cost.”

The heart was silent for a second before replying.

  


Susie unfolded her arms. “I knew it.” She sighed and set her sight square on the glowing organ. “Okay, then... let’s hear it.”

Susie raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  


Susie’s eyes swelled. “You want to WHAT?”

“Why?”

  
  


The heart hesitated on its words for a split second.

Susie rushed forward and wrapped her claws around the cage. “Is that a threat!?”

  
  


Susie’s grimace only grew harder. “I… don’t understand what any of this bull is, but what guarantee do I have you aren’t just going to take him over like some kind of… parasite?”

There was silence for a few seconds after Susie had asked her question.

A few more seconds passed before the heart resumed again.

  
  
  


Susie thought back to some books she had read about human souls. She recalled how monsters could theoretically absorb a human’s very being and become godlike. She also recalled how it was believed that such a case was what triggered the human-monster war nearly over 100 years earlier.

At those thoughts, Susie’s grip on the cage tightened. “If I take you out of that cage, what guarantee do I have that you won’t take over MY body?!”

  


  


There was another short pause from the heart.

  
  


Susie let go of the cage, stood back up, and stepped away from the cage before pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, eyes closed and mind deep in thought.

In truth, Susie couldn’t entirely make sense of everything she’d just been told, but what parts she could, she didn’t quite like. It was one thing to trust someone she could physically hear and see and punch… but to trust what essentially amounted to a floating orb of light was another matter entirely...

W _ith how crappy things are for me right now… I’m kinda short on choices,_  Susie thought as she looked down at her dirty, smelling clothing. Logically, the best choice was to ignore the heart, pretend she had never seen anything and figure out some way to convince Kris to call off the whole ‘date.’ Yet if she did that, it would signal to Kris that she had no care for his feelings, which would, in turn, break his heart after he had gone to such trouble to gather up the courage to ask her out in the first place… even if it had been a practical choice as he so claimed. _What if he grows to resent me?_  she asked herself, swallowing hard at the potential answer. _I_ _… he… h-he’s really all… I’ve got left…_

The teenage dragon stopped in her tracks and looked up to the ceiling. Without Kris, she would never again go back to the Dark World. That meant never again seeing Lancer or Ralsei, or any of the other dozen goofballs she had come like. More importantly, without Kris, she well and truly felt as if she would be lost. She had no other pillar to lean on in the world. The very idea of losing that made her heart ache.

Susie’s hands curled into fists as she turned back to face the cage with a grim, determined gaze. “You… better stick to your end of the bargain… or I’ll personally crush you with my bare hands!”

Susie stepped forward with some trepidation. She squatted next to the cage and carefully undid the latches holding the small cage door closed. With a deep breath of air, the dragon reached into the cage and gripped her hand around the heart.

Susie’s eyes widened, the texture of the organ—if it could even be considered a texture—felt like nothing she had ever grasped in her life. The sensation was indescribable, the closest analog being somehow managing to grab on to solid air charged with static electricity.

As Susie brought the heart out of their cage, she could feel the beating in her palm, every pulse sending waves of energy through her very being.

Susie did just as instructed. Not one second after she placed the beating organ to her chest did the young dragon felt a wave of pure power run through her. For a second, she felt as if her very skin would start to peel from the force, leaving her muscle layer exposed to the elements. Yet, as energy coursed through her being, she felt no pain. If anything, she felt a force she hadn’t felt since the time she had learned how to use the Red Buster magic.

Susie’s body glowed a bright crimson as she felt something start to form around being, her regular clothes slowly morphing into… something else entirely.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Aster slowly withdrew his hand from the boy’s forehead, the expression on his face unchanged as he inspected his work. Next to him, the vessel looked on with his eyeless visage, his head turning from the human to the skeleton, and back to the human, almost as if confused as to what had just taken place.

There was silence in the cavern, the dying rays of sun coming from the gap above just barely able to keep the cave alight. The only sound resonating within the chamber was the uneven, strained breathing of Kris as he slowly began to stir.

“ **ARE YOU AWAKE?** ” Aster asked as he took a step backward.

Kris’ eyes suddenly shot open. As they did, their natural ruby hue glowed twice as bright and with such intensity that not even the curtain of brown hair covering half his face could hold back the glow. He quickly rose back to his feet as he looked down at this hands. Slowly, he stretched and contracted the digits in his right hand, while his left, fingers still wrapped around the toy knife, brought the ‘weapon’ up to his eyes.

A broad toothy grin formed on the human’s face as he, at last, turned his sight towards Dr. Aster. "Greetings. I believe I have you to thank you for my… awakening?” Kris asked the doctor, his tone of voice, while unchanged in timbre, somehow carrying with it an ominous ring that could fill even the bravest of souls with unease.

“ **YES,** ” Aster nonchalantly replied.

Kris looked down at his body, inspecting it as if it was the first time he had ever seen it with his eyes. “If I must be honest, I wasn’t expecting the takeover to be this... easy. I expected him to struggle some more. I also expected that bothersome heart to try something again, so to finally be free and in control is… surprising...” he uttered, all the while looking to his surroundings with the utmost curiosity, at which point he finally caught on as to where he was standing. “The summit of Mount Ebott. Yeah, I remember this place. It’s been so long since I last stood here…” He looked back down at the knife in his hands as he spoke those words, his eyes widening with realization and surprise. “My old friend is even here with me! I didn’t expect to ever see it again. This is a very nice surprise.” He twirled the blade on his hand and did a couple of slashes. “Though, it feels as if time hasn’t been kind to you…” he reached for his dress shirt and ripped a piece from it, wrapping the cloth around the bare handle. “There we are. Now you’re ready to slice and dice again,” the possessed youth said, the grin on his lips growing ear to ear.

Aster cleared his throat. “ **DO NOT BE GETTING USED TO THESE ACCOMMODATIONS TOO MUCH. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED CONTROL OVER THE BODY JUST LONG ENOUGH FOR ME OBTAIN THE REQUIRED INFORMATION FROM YOU.** ”

Kris’ red eyes turned to look at the doctor. “There is something familiar about you, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” He brought a hand to his chin and began rubbing it in contemplation. “That presence of yours… it’s…” The youth’s eyes widened, and his smile dropped a few millimeters as the grip on his knife grew stronger.

Aster’s unblinking gaze again fell on the teen’s crimson eyes. “ **I REQUIRE INFORMATION.** ” The doctor put his hands together, the blank smile on his lips slowly growing more extensive.

“What kind of information is it that you seek?” Kris asked with a narrowing gaze.

“ **WHO IS THE KNIGHT?** ”

Before Aster could utter a word of reply, Kris let out a deep, ominous chuckle. “You want to know who the Knight is? You must either be a crazy fool or truly desperate. Or maybe both!” The possessed youth chuckled and began twirling the toy knife in his hand as he took a single step forward. “You know, I think I’m starting to remember you now!”

Aster raised an eyebrow in reply.

Kris’s smile grew wide, his lips parting ear to ear, and his lips rising to reveal a toothy malicious grin. “You’re him... that crazy doctor that fell into his creation and was torn apart and scattered all through space and time… the man who speaks in hands.” Kris’s wide grin slowly began to drop. “You’re the one who summoned me here… though I have to ask exactly why?”

“ **AS I SAID EARLIER, I ONLY DID SO BECAUSE YOU HAVE INFORMATION I NEED,** ” Aster repeated, all the while pointing his finger at the possessed youth. “ **WHO IS THE KNIGHT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHAT ARE THEY PLANNING NEXT?** ”

Kris crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “The Knight… is difficult to pin down. Their plans were set in motion years ago. Their every move has been calculated to the last second; their will set so much in motion for you or anyone else to stop it.” The possessed teen cruelly laughed. “And guess what? Everything’s going to their plan! Even this conversation was meant to take place!” The teen shook his head and licked his lips slowly and deliberately. “How does it feel being the one out of the loop for once, doctor?”

Aster himself chuckled, prompting Kris to glance sideways at the skeleton. “ **IT FEELS GREAT, ACTUALLY,** ” he said, his voice ringing not from a dozen feet away as Kris remembered, but instead from right next to the possessed youth’s head.

Before the teen had a chance to really react, Aster moved to place another hand on his head. Kris’ possessed eyes widened as he jumped back to avoid the immediate physical response. He then rushed Aster with such speed and ferocity that in the blink of an eye, he had moved nearly six feet forward. His body was barely holding as his mass displaced so much air that his sudden halt right in front of the skeleton created a small gust of wind that buffeted the doctor, who for his part looked to be unfazed by the fact that he was now standing inches away from the possessed youth’s face.

Kris, in a motion that lasted less than a single second, raised his arm, once more twirled the plastic blade in the palm of his hand, and launched a blow at the doctor. The force of the assault could be felt as air rushed in to fill the sudden vacuum created by the youth’s unexpected and incredible motion, all the while his eyes shone a bright red with unfathomable anticipation. His already toothy grin somehow grew wider as the possessed teen wondered to himself if Aster would bleed dust like all monsters, or maybe he would do something else entirely.

Just as the toy knife was about to strike Aster’s bony face, Kris’ attack stopped inches away from its target. The possessed youth shifted his glance and noticed that the thing keeping his arm locked in place by a gray hand not unlike his own in shape and size. He traced the hand all the way up the sleeve and to the owner’s body, at which point he spotted a gray being that looked almost identical to himself, his lack of facial features not at all detracting from the heavy and intense vibe he was giving off. Had the featureless being had eyes, he likely would have been glaring daggers.

Kris jerked his hand out of the vessel’s palm and swiftly replied with another attack. Once again, the gray being deflected the assault by catching the teen’s arm and wrapping his own limb around it. The sudden stop caused the possessed Kris to stagger with a mixture of surprise and annoyance. With his free left arm, the possessed teen sent a punch in the vessel’s direction. The vessel, in turn, dodged by ducking. As the blow missed the gray teen’s head though, Kris tossed the knife in his still snared right arm to his left hand, which he grabbed, twirled to catch the handle in a reverse grip and instantly swung back.

The suddenness of the attack, coupled with the inhuman speed of the possessed teen, finally forced the vessel to release his grip on Kris’ arm and jump back to avoid the attack. Even so, the speed and ferocity with which the assault was delivered resulted in a part of the vessel’s sweater around the upper chest being cut, revealing a small yet deep-looking gash that lightly oozed a gray liquid that faintly smelled of copper.

Kris laughed as he wiped the gray blood from the plastic blade. “That was only with a toy knife! Once I get my hands on a real one though…” Kris once again licked his lips with anticipation.

The vessel only looked on with his eyeless glare at Kris, almost as if challenging the possessed teen to try something more. He even pointed at the teen and shook his head.

Kris took a step forward. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, blade still tightly gripped in a reverse style on his hand.

“ **IT MEANS THAT IF YOU WILL NOT SPEAK THE ANSWERS I SEEK, I WILL TAKE THEM DIRECTLY FROM YOUR BRAIN.** ” Aster suddenly commented as he materialized right behind the possessed teen. With the same speed as Kris had demonstrated earlier, the doctor grabbed hold of his head with his right hand and spun him in place so that the skeleton and human locked eyes.

Kris tried to raise his weapon, only to find his arm unresponsive to his command. He tried moving his other arm, only to be met with similar results. After a couple more failed attempts, the teen fixed Aster with a sharp piercing glare, one that had his eyes been any brighter, would have quickly burned away at the skeleton’s being. “Good luck finding anything in there!” he spat at the doctor, his wide toothy grin returning tenfold. “The only thing in this head is ‘his’ memories… and I get the feeling you don’t want to mess around with those more than you already have,” the youth said with a grin almost half the size of his visible face.

“ **I REQUIRE THAT INFORMATION… AND I WILL OBTAIN IT.** ”

“If you want it that bad, then go ahead, take it! Force your way into his brain, rummage around all you want! You are not going to find what you seek… and you wanna know why?” Kris cruelly laughed. “To get to me, you have to go through the real Kris… but doing that means you would have to do irreparable damage. Who knows... you might even end up killing the boy!”

Aster’s grip on Kris’ head tightens. For the first time since first making himself known, his confident grin is missing. He says nothing as he brings up his left hand and points a single bony digit at the teen. “ **YOU MAY HAVE THE UPPER HAND RIGHT NOW… BUT THINGS WILL SOON CHANGE. IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME UNTIL I DISCOVER WHAT THE KNIGHT PLANS.** ”

Kris’s grin only grew wider in response. “Lie to yourself all you want, doctor. It won’t make a difference. Things will continue just as the Knight planned them, and you’ll be stuck playing catch-up. You’re destined to lose, Aster… or should I call you by your real name…

Before the possessed Kris could finish his words, the doctor put his left index finger over the teen’s forehead. The youth let out a hiss of pain as the glow in his eyes vanished and his body went wholly limp as he began shaking, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. Kris let out a sigh and cough as he started breathing shallowly and rapidly, gasping for air almost as if he had just risen from the depths of a cold dark pool.

The doctor lets go of Kris as he flopped forward, just barely able to keep himself from falling on the ground face first. “Wa… where…” the teen weakly mumbled, his eyes trying focusing on their surroundings. Meanwhile, the teen fought desperately from wincing from the pain in the back of his head; pain akin to drill slowly boring into the spot where his spine met his skull.

“ **WELCOME BACK, KRIS,** ” Aster quickly responded to the teen. “ **I HOPE YOU ARE NOT IN TOO MUCH DISCOMFORT.** ”

Kris lets out a pained groan as he tried standing, his body wobbling from side to side as his muscles ached as if he had just finished running a whole marathon. “D-doctor? What… what happened to me?” The youth asked, looking down at his hands, spotting both a thick gray substance that seemed to be much the same consistency of oil and the toy knife still wrapped in his right hand, it’s blue plastic blade also stained with the same mysterious gray liquid.

Kris grabbed ahold of his head as vague images began playing in his mind… copies of his own body and mind acting in a way that defied his physical prowess; muscles that were pushed far past their earthly limits… a desire to harm that challenged rational morality and could only be described as wholly wicked… a resilience to fatigue and pain that wasn’t entirely his own… it all utterly terrified him.

“ **I AM AFRAID THAT THINGS HAVE BECOME MORE… COMPLICATED,** ” the doctor nonchalantly replied. “ **TO THINK THAT THEY WOULD HAVE SO MUCH SWAY IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME… HOW UNEXPECTED… BUT ALSO HOW INTERESTING…** ” The corners of the doctor’s bony lips slowly began rising. “ **…VERY, VERY INTERESTING…** ”

Kris’ legs finally gave out, and he collapsed on his rear, his head throbbing like a vice slowly clenching over, and his heart burning as if a ferocious furnace was set to its highest possible temperature. The youth brought a hand to his face and covered his eyes. “What’s… happening… to me?”

Aster turned to face the troubled teen. “ **YOU WILL KNOW SOON ENOUGH. FOR NOW…REST…** ”

“W-what…?” Kris asked, his legs just barely able to lift him a few millimeters as the doctor, with the same blank expression as when he had first set eyes on the teen, snapped his fingers, a few blue sparkles of magical power erupting as an equally blue aura wrapped itself around the youth’s being. He let out a single sigh and lowered his head, his body slumping on itself. “But… I… don’t wanna… rest…” the teen whispered as his eyes closed. Little by little, Kris’s breathing became even and relaxed, his body finally easing as his previously held stress was released in a single cathartic sigh. Light snoring began as the teen’s chest slowly rose and contracted. His body, despite supposedly having no more consciousness, still managed to stay upright, almost as if held in place by some form of lingering resolution that went beyond the norm and instead bordered on inborn intrepidity.

Aster, despite his temptation to further study just how much lingering will an unconscious human could have, decided that other matters needed tending to first. He had already disrupted things enough as it was. He turned to face the vessel, who stood there tending to his wound, his expression, despite being featureless, still showing enough of his discomfort and fatigue to let any onlooker that the scar on his chest was indeed genuine.  
  
“APOLOGIES FOR THE INJURY,” Aster started, his attention now wholly set on his gray companion. “ **IT WAS A MISCALCULATION ON MY PART. I CAN ASSURE YOU, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.** ”

The vessel crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side.

Aster chuckled. “ **YES, I UNDERSTAND THAT SUCH ‘MISCALCULATIONS’ CAN RESULT IN NEGATIVE OUTCOMES UP TO INCLUDING DEATH. UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS A NECESSARY RISK.** ”

The vessel rubbed his chin, and harshly pointed at the unconscious teenager.

“ **WHAT DID I DO TO HIM? NOTHING PERMANENT, I CAN ASSURE YOU. IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A SIMPLE PACIFICATION SPELL, COURTESY OF THAT LITTLE PRINCE FROM THE DARK.** ” Aster chuckled in reply to his own words. “ **SOMEWHAT IRONIC, TO THINK THAT THE TOOL HE AND SUSIE USED TO KEEP FROM HURTING OTHERS DURING THEIR JOURNEY WOULD ONE DAY COME BACK TO… INCONVENIENCE HIM.** ”

The vessel shook his head and again pointed at Kris.

Aster raised an eyebrow. “ **YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT HIM REMEMBERING ALL OF THIS?** ” Aster again chuckled. “ **HE WILL REMEMBER OUR MEETING, AND HE WILL REMEMBER SOME OF MY WORDS… BUT THE FIGHT, THE POSSESSION; NONE OF THAT HE WILL RECALL.** ”

The vessel nodded and then pointed to the knife still gripped in the teen’s hands.

“ **THAT ‘WEAPON’ IS USELESS UNLESS ‘THEY’ ARE WIELDING IT. NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT FURTHER HARM COMING FROM HIM. NOT THAT HE SEEMS TO BE THE TYPE TO HURT OTHERS WILLINGLY ANYWAY.** ”

The vessel walked up to Kris and grabbed the knife from his hand. He gave the ‘weapon’ a feel on his gray hands, twirling it and testing the blade on a finger. When the gray being ran the blade on his index, he found it to be nothing more than a dull plastic edge that couldn’t even cut butter if it wanted to. Yet, as the vessel ran a hand on the still fresh wound on his chest, he was quickly reminded of just how powerful the ‘toy’ could really be when in possession of the invading consciousness trapped deep within Kris’ psyche.

With a shaky hand, the vessel reached into Kris’ jacket and pulled it open, revealing a small inner pocket on his vest. With one final look at the ‘weapon,’ the doppelganger stuffed it into one of Kris’ internal pockets and closed the jacket. The vessel then patted on the area where the knife should have been, only to find it barely detectable by his touch, almost as if the object had either somehow grown two sizes smaller, or had simply vanished into some kind of pocket dimension.

Aster raised an eyebrow. “ **YOU WANT HIM TO KEEP THAT KNIFE? A RISKY MOVE, BUT I CAN SEE SOME MERIT FOR THAT IDEA.** ”

The vessel stood back up and nodded in reply to Aster’s question. With another motion of his hands, he pointed again at Kris, and then back to the doctor, at which point he made a motion to his wrist, tapping it as if he was wearing an invisible watch.

“ **AH YES, TIME IS INDEED RUNNING SHORT. WE DO NOT WANT TO DETRACT FROM THIS YOUNG MAN’S EVENING ANY MORE THAN WE ALREADY HAVE,” Aster said, another ominous chuckle leaving his lips. “BUT WE CANNOT HAVE HIM SHOWING UP LOOKING SO DISHEVELED. LET US… RESOLVE THIS ISSUE.** ”

Aster walked up to Kris’s still slumbering form and set his sight on the teen’s torn and soiled suit. Without wasting any more time, Aster put a hand on the teen’s shoulder, and with a sudden surge of magical power, channeled energy into the youth’s body. In a matter of seconds, the torn parts of the suit began to repair themselves, the dirt and grime vanishing as a wave of red energy washed over the environment. When at last the glow faded, Kris’s suit now looked as sharp as if it had just come out of a dry cleaner, with nary a sign of the possession and altercations that had taken place no more than a few minutes ago.

“ **THAT SHOULD COVER THE DAMAGES. NOW, TO MAKE SURE THE REST OF HIS MEMORY PLAYS OUT JUST AS INTENDED…** ” Aster looked to the vessel, who in turn gave the doctor a thumbs up in approval.

The doctor chuckled and brought the fingers on his right hand together. “ **WE WILL MEET AGAIN… AND WHEN WE DO, YOU WILL TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE KNIGHT. UNTIL THEN… KRISTOPHER…** ” Aster gave the human teen a far softer look than at any other time that night. “ **…DO NOT LET YOURSELF BECOME CONSUMED BY THEM. YOU HAVE TO STAY DETERMINED.** ”

Aster snapped his bony fingers.

The world went very much dark once again…

 

-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-***-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Kris awoke with a start, his eyes snapping open as he looked around. As he did, he noticed that he was standing on the porch to his house. He ran a hand over his hair as he tried recalling just where his mind had been the last few minutes...

The last thing Kris remembered was answering a strange phone call, which had then introduced him to a peculiar doctor going by the name of ‘Wind Ding Aster.’ He couldn’t recall much after that, other than the two had engaged in a fascinating conversation that, now that he really thought about it, he couldn’t really remember what the subject spoken had been about.

Kris again reached for his phone to check on the time.

Whatever the conversation had been about, it had lasted a little over 30 minutes. That still gave Susie and himself plenty of time to get to the school… though it would take longer if they went on foot. _Which reminds me…_  Kris thought as he looked over his phone. Sure enough, it seems that he had been looking at possible cab services in and around the Hometown area, only to find that none of them appeared to service Hometown itself.

Kris let out a groan. _So much for that idea,_  he lamented as he stuffed his phone away and pinched the bridge of his nose. It would seem that the two of them would have to leg it after all. At those thoughts, he couldn’t help but question if Susie had even finished her preparation. He had been outside quite a long time; long enough for her to at least have on some kind of clothing on. He reached for the door handle and paused for just a second, wondering what kind of outfit Susie would be exhibiting. He didn’t quite picture her as being one to wear something super fancy. If anything, he imagined her wearing her usual outfit, just smelling nicer. Unlike with Noelle, he had no real frame of reference for his dragon friend as he had never seen her be fancy as far as his recollections went.

Without wasting any more time, Kris opened his front door, only to be met with a sight that very nearly left him breathless.

Standing in the living room was Susie. Only, it was a version of Susie that Kris had never seen… nor could have even imagined he would ever see. He very nearly had to rub his eyes just to make sure he wasn’t seeing some kind of hallucination.

“W-well… H-how do I… look, y-you fr-freak?” Susie asked, her now luxuriously prepared auburn hair styled into beautiful wavy waterfalls that shone radiantly in the light of the room just barely able to hide her steadily blushing face.

Kris tried to answer, but his jaw hung limp as he began absorbing every single detail of Susie’s outfit; a red two-piece suit that hugged her body so tight as to almost be considered a skinsuit—every curve on her body now visible and accentuated far more than even her previously donned tracksuit. Somehow, even that seemed restricting when compared to how luxuriant her current outfit made her appear, almost as if the fancy semi-business nature of the outfit made her look ten times as alluring. Even the high-heeled boots—which was the only part of the outfit that somewhat clashed with the rest of the ensemble—seemed to serve the larger outfit as a whole.

“Susie… y-you, look… Am-am-am...” Kris started, but his words were cut off as he closed his mouth to keep himself from uttering the gibbering nonsense he could sense forming in the tip of his tongue. He took a deep breath and deeply concentrated. “Susie. You look so… different.”

Susie sighed and gave Kris a sincere smile. “Thanks. You don’t look half bad… yourself,” she said, the red in her cheeks making her feel so much heated than she should have. The two teens looked at each other for about a minute before Susie broke the ice and walked past Kris. “So, where’s the cab?” she asked half-enthusiastically.

Kris winced at the question. He cleared his throat and tried to come up with a convincing answer, only to realize that no matter what he said or how he said it, there would be no real way of getting around the fact that he had failed in that particular task.

“Uh… well. You see…” Kris started, his tone somewhat shaky despite his best attempts at keeping a straight timbre.

Susie quickly picked up on the tone and turned around to face Kris, her expression doing nothing to hide the fact that she already knew what he would say in regards to a cab. Instead, she only crossed her arms and sighed. “No cab, huh?”

Kris, with no other real answer, nodded in reply.

Susie shook her head and walked up to Kris, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You know what this means, right?” she asked somewhat ominously. Deep down, she knew her words were empty at best. It wasn’t like she was expecting Kris to live up to his side of the deal, especially since there hadn’t been a deal to begin with. _I’ll just tease him a bit. Sure, after what I did to him he should be the one teasing me, but this should help get our minds out of that punch earlier,_  Susie thought as she put on a wide toothy grin on her lips.

Kris nodded and took a deep breath. Without saying a single word or making another sound aside from his determined breathing, he walked close to Susie, who in turn scooted back just a bit to give the human room. He then abruptly crouched next to her, and in a single fluid movement that would have made any pick-up artist proud, he scooped her legs and back into his arms, picking her up in much the same way as a groom would pick up his wife moments after their wedding vows were spoken.

“Wa-wha-what!?” Susie couldn’t help shout as she felt her whole weight vanish as Kris’ soft yet firm arms grabbed hold of her entire being. _Holy crap! H-he actually… actually freaking did it!!_  the dragon thought, her brain just barely able to process what was really happening to her.

Kris struggled to keep Susie’s weight aloft at first, but the act gradually became more manageable as she pumped himself more and more with adrenaline, hormones, and determination. His very eyes burned with newfound desire to succeed at this latest goal, and he would not falter in any possible way.

Susie face, meanwhile, began glowing red so brightly, that she could barely keep herself from screaming any more than she already had. While trying to keep a calm and relatively collected face, the truth was that deep down, she was absolutely freaking out. She hadn’t actually expected Kris to carry her as he was now.  _I-I mean… I did tell him to carry my ass…_  she told herself in an attempt to rationalize Kris’ actions, but that did more harm than good…

By the time Kris had closed the front door to his house using his foot and started down the road towards the school, Susie wondered just how far the Dreemurr boy would be able to carry her before his back gave out. As she glanced sideways at the teen’s determined, almost glowing ruby eyes, she instantly knew that it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

_Tonight’s going to be a weird night, isn’t?_ Susie mused as she tried not to think too hard about what was happening to her at the moment. _Still, I did start this… might as well enjoy it while it lasts,_  she thought, a warm smile slowly forcing the corners of her lips to rise. Not once in her life would she have imagined anyone would do what Kris was not doing for her.

Susie had to close her eyes to keep her more impure thoughts in check…

 

* * *

* * *

 


End file.
